Conservatism a "mental disease"?

While I was away, a "scientific" study was published with some authors from UC Berkeley (press release) with the revealing title "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition".

Silent Running predictably is all over what they see as a throwback to the days of Soviet "political psychiatry". They round up other coverage.

I am willing to give the authors of the study the benefit of the doubt on charges (leveled by SR and those they quote) that they see Conservatism as some form of mental disease. And the suggestion that there might be a link between one's psychological make-up and one's political views cannot be dismissed out of hand. When reading the original, however, I was pretty dumbfounded:

Our researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political conservatism is the resistance to change

If you define conservatism as "opposition to change" the statement becomes a tautology --- but by that standard Fidel Castro is a conservative since he wants to preserve the present Cuban system. If you define Conservatism ideologically, some "Conservatives" are in fact more open to far-reaching changes in our daily lives (such as those wrought by science and technology) than the regressist Green "left".

and a tolerance for inequality

Possibly the only point that holds any water. If you define "inequality" as "inequality of outcome", that is. Many supposed Conservatives are very intolerant of "inequality of opportunity".

and that some of the common psychological factors linked to political conservatism include:

Fear and aggression

Seen in looney-leftists as well as looney-rightists.

Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity

A real howler for anyone who's ever tried to have a reasoned debate with a Marxist, a fundi-Green, a radical Third Worldist, or an antiglobalist.

Uncertainty avoidance

Something that typifies doctrinaire adherents of any rigid ideology, which includes much of the so-called "left".

Need for cognitive closure

In fact, many supposedly "Conservative" people I know are a great deal more accepting of the imperfect nature of our world and the people living in it than many so-called "liberals". The very willingness to accept that people are not equal is a good example.

"From our perspective, these psychological factors are capable of contributing to the adoption of conservative ideological contents, either independently or in combination."

Count Blarney had nothing on you, guys! (Vrij vertaald: "Ge moet het maar kunnen uitleggen.")