I'm not a psychologist, but I play one on the internets. I have a passing interest in behavioral psychology and casually read many articles pertaining to this subject. I have taken courses where rat brains were probed. My personal ideas relate to environmental causation of many of the mental diseases afflicting us all. My personal unsubstantiated ideas attribute much of humanity's ills to chemistry. I have never studied chemistry, but then Einstein never traveled at the speed of light. I've been concerned about the gender bending properties of plastics and other physiological effects on life and about the psychological effects of similar irritants that surround us all.
I recently watched a TV program about how parasites can alter the behavior of intermediary hosts. About how a parasite can cause rats to seek out cat urine for nesting sites, and how the same parasite can cause humans behavior to be altered. After a little reading I believe that I have found a cause of wingnuttery. T.gondii infection.
There is a burgeoning field of study of morals in the realm of psychology. Cited as a core difference in the way the left and right think morally:
We lefties use Harm/Care and Fairness/Reciprocity modules; conservatives, especially religious conservatives,include Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. from:
http://people.virginia.edu/...
I think that by including those three imperatives into their thinking, show:
Many different theoretical accounts of conservatism have stressed the motivational underpinnings of conservative thought, but they have identified different needs as critical. Our review brings these diverse accounts together for the first time and integrates them. Specific variables that have been hypothesized to predict conservatism include fear and aggression (Adorno et al.,1950; Altemeyer, 1998), intolerance of ambiguity (Fibert &Ressler, 1998; Frenkel-Brunswik, 1949), rule following and negative affect (Tomkins, 1963, 1965), uncertainty avoidance (Sorrentino & Roney, 1986; Wilson, 1973b), need for cognitive closure(Kruglanski & Webster, 1996), personal need for structure (Altemeyer,1998; Schaller, Boyd, Yohannes, & O'Brien, 1995; Smith& Gordon, 1998), need for prevention-oriented regulatory focus(Higgins, 1997; Liberman et al., 1999), anxiety arising from mortality salience (Greenberg et al., 1990, 1992), group-based dominance(Pratto et al., 1994; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), and system justification tendencies (Jost & Banaji, 1994; Jost, Burgess, &Mosso, 2001). In what follows, we summarize major theoretical perspectives and use them to generate a comprehensive list of motives that are potential predictors of political conservatism.
http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...
Which lays the ground work for my latest thought experience.
Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled brain parasite spread by cats. Our feline companions are its preferred home and only in their bodies can it mature and reproduce. So like most parasites, T.gondii has a complex life cycle designed to get it into its final host. If it finds itself in another animal, it travels to the brain and changes the host's behaviour to maximise its chances of ending up in a cat. For rodents, this means being eaten and infected individuals are less fearful of cats and more active, making them easier prey.
Humans can also contract the parasite, through contact with soil contaminated by the faeces of carriers or through eating infected meat. But since cats are very unlikely to eat humans, T.gondii reaches a cul-de-sac in our bodies. Still, there is nothing to stop the parasite, evolutionarily speaking, from trying out the strategies that work so well in other hosts. In rare cases, T.gondii infection causes a disease called toxoplasmosis that produces mild flu-like symptoms and only really threatens foetuses and those with weak immune systems. But in most instances, the parasite acts more subtly.
Carriers tend to show long-term personality changes that are small but statistically significant. Women tend to be more intelligent, affectionate, social and more likely to stick to rules. Men on the other hand tend to be less intelligent, but are more loyal, frugal and mild-tempered. The one trait that carriers of both genders share is a higher level of neuroticism - they are more prone to guilt, self-doubt and insecurity.
Neuroticism is one of the most widely-studied of all psychological traits and Lafferty found that levels in different countries correlated well with the levels of T.gondii infection. The parasites' presence was also related to aspects of culture associated with neuroticism. Countries where infection was common were more likely to have 'masculine sex roles', characterized by greater differences between the sexes and their part in society and a stronger focus on work, ambition and money rather than people and relationships. Strongly infected societies were also more likely to avoid risk and embrace strict rules and regulations.
Obviously, different countries are also not just uniform populations, and increasing rates of migration mean that many countries are very ethnically and culturally mixed. However, this works in favour of Lafferty's theory as any mixing would serve to mask the link between infection and culture. If anything, the link is stronger than seen in this study.
Therefore I conclude that wingnuts are in fact cat shit insane. Also, too.