The Psychological Roots of Humor’s Liberal Bias

2019 ◽  
pp. 119-140
Author(s):  
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young
Keyword(s):  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Cognitive Tasks ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Tolerance For Ambiguity ◽  
Cultural Conservatism ◽  
Aesthetic Preferences ◽  
Liberal Bias

This chapter integrates literature on the psychology of liberals and conservatives with the study of aesthetic preferences. It summarizes research illustrating how liberals and conservatives vary in their artistic and aesthetic tastes, and how these differences are shaped by the higher tolerance for ambiguity and need for cognition of those on the left. It then advances a key proposition: that irony is a particularly complex and ambiguous form of humor that requires a comfort with ambiguity and motivation to engage in complex cognitive tasks and hence is favored by those on the left. Also included is a consideration of the logic and spirit of improvisation, to which ambiguity is central. Finally, the chapter offers an exploration of the language, humor, and policies of President Donald Trump as a case study in cultural conservatism that is notably noncomic.

scholarly journals Aesthetic Preferences for Visual Quality of Urban Landscape in Derak High-Rise Buildings (Shiraz)

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Reza Keshtkaran ◽  
Amin Habibi ◽  
Hamidreza Sharif
Keyword(s):  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Grid Method ◽  
Visual Quality ◽  
Landscape Design ◽  
High Rise ◽  
Q Sort ◽  
Aesthetic Preferences ◽  
Psychophysical Approach

The purpose of this study is to extract the indices of Aesthetic preferences for visual quality of urban landscape in high-rise buildings which contribute designers to make better decisions for designing urban landscape. As the research focuses on the high-rise buildings, this study goal address the question as follows: ‘What are aesthetic preferences in high-rise buildings? How can these preferences be developed and categorized?’ To achieve this objective, the Derak district of Shiraz city was selected as a case study area using Photo grid method and then all high-rise buildings in this area were identified and analyzed. Aesthetic preferences data were evaluated by Q-SORT method with the psychophysical approach. Eventually, aesthetic factors have been presented in two main categories: 'primary and distinctive'. Findings lead to the development of APPD model which suggests that when the landscape design of a building moves toward distinctive factors, the degree of its aesthetic preferences increases.

scholarly journals Trump, Populism, and American Foreign Policy

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 292-311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Wojczewski
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
International Relations ◽  
American Foreign Policy ◽  
The United States ◽  
Discursive Construction ◽  
Collective Identities ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Lacanian Psychoanalysis ◽  
Self And Other

Abstract Employing a discursive understanding of populism and combing it with insights of poststructuralist international relations theory and Lacanian psychoanalysis, this article examines the conceptual links between foreign policy and populist forms of identity construction, as well as the ideological force that populism can unfold in the realm of foreign policy. It conceptualizes populism and foreign policy as distinct discourses that constitute collective identities by relating Self and Other. Identifying different modes of Othering, the article illustrates its arguments with a case study on the United States under Donald Trump and shows how the Trumpian discourse has used foreign policy as a platform for the (re)production of a populist-nationalist electoral coalition. Unlike common conceptions of populism as an ideology that misrepresents reality, the article argues that the discourse develops its ideological appeal by obscuring the discursive construction of social reality and thereby promising to satisfy the subject's desire for a complete and secure identity.

scholarly journals Trumpism, Citizenship, and the Future of the LGBTQ Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 649-672
Author(s):  
Zein Murib
Keyword(s):  
Political Agenda ◽  
Historical Case Study ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Resistance Strategies ◽  
2016 Election ◽  
Movement Building ◽  
The Military ◽  
Trump Administration

AbstractScholarship on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) politics argues that political claims, such as access to the military and marriage, are most effective when representatives from the group articulate that the desire for inclusion and participation in those institutions is similar to the desires held by their straight and nontransgender counterparts. This strategy of assimilation has yielded many positive legal changes. And yet the Donald Trump administration marks a period in which these gains have been repeatedly challenged and particular segments of the LGBTQ group are increasingly under attack. This article offers a preliminary analysis of how LGBTQ politics has been impacted by the 2016 election. Using a historical case study of LGBTQ identity construction and agenda development during the second half of the 1990s, I ask: how might the LGBTQ group mine its recent history for clues to rethink its political agenda and political strategies? Having shown that opportunities to advance a different movement—one focused on more radical, broadly inclusive changes—were bypassed during this period, I conclude by putting forward several recommendations for contemporary LGBTQ movement building and resistance strategies.

Who Gets the Joke?

2019 ◽  
pp. 85-99
Author(s):  
Dannagal Goldthwaite Young
Keyword(s):  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Intended Meaning ◽  
Deep Dive ◽  
Humor Appreciation ◽  
The Family ◽  
Tolerance For Ambiguity ◽  
Colbert Report ◽  
The Colbert Report ◽  
Processing Motivation

Using humor scholar Salvatore Attardo’s criteria for humor appreciation as a framework, this chapter describes the kinds of people who might be expected to have the greatest appreciation of humor. It explores joke difficulty, the level of threat a joke may activate in a listener, the available knowledge in the minds of the audience, and their processing motivation as factors that affect humor appreciation. The chapter links the traits of tolerance for ambiguity and need for cognition to humor appreciation, as both enhance an individual’s motivation and ability to process and appreciate a joke. It also includes a deep dive into the strange case of irony (with reference to All in the Family and The Colbert Report), which audiences can appreciate even when their interpretation is the opposite of the intended meaning of the joke’s producer.

Understanding Multi-directional Democratic Decay: Lessons from the Rise of Bolsonaro in Brazil

2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-226
Author(s):  
Tom Gerald Daly
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Elections ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Far Right ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Usa ◽  
History Of ◽  
Democratic System ◽  
Democratic Rule ◽  
The Tropics

AbstractOn 28 October 2018 the far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro won the presidential elections in Brazil with 55% of the vote. This result has been viewed by many as yet another instance of the global rise of authoritarian populist leaders, grouping Bolsonaro alongside the likes of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, India’s Narendra Modi, or Donald Trump in the USA – indeed, Bolsonaro has been dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics.” The focus on Bolsonaro himself reflects the strong emphasis on executives in a rapidly expanding literature suggesting the emergence of a new form of would-be autocrat who is democratically elected but who hollows out democratic rule over time. However, this Article argues that, far beyond Bolsonaro, the Brazilian experience is an important case-study as it prompts reflection on three fundamental propositions. First, any analysis of liberal democracy as the perceived object of attack must be highly cognizant of the democratic “starting point” and history of a given state. Second, an excessive focus on executive-led assaults on democratic rule can impede fuller analysis of a broader suite of actors and factors relevant to the (declining) health of the democratic system. Third, authoritarianism is a more appropriate analytical lens than populism for identifying potential democratic threats, especially in the Brazilian context.

scholarly journals My Presidency of the Academy of Management: Moral Responsibility, Leadership, Governance, Organizational Change, and Strategy

2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (3) ◽  
pp. 251-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anita M. McGahan
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
The United States ◽  
Executive Order ◽  
Personal Beliefs ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Muslim Countries ◽  
The World ◽  
Own Name

I was the President of the Academy of Management (AOM) in 2016-2017 when U.S. President Donald Trump issued an Executive Order banning immigration and travel to the United States by citizens of seven predominantly Muslim countries (EO13769). While I immediately sought to condemn EO13769 as immoral and as a threat to the AOM, I was only able to issue a condemnation in my own name and not in the name of the AOM because the Board’s Executive Committee correctly determined that a condemnation would have violated the AOM Constitution. This put me in the untenable position of leading an organization operating under principles that conflicted with my personal beliefs about an immoral act of government. The article is a case study on this situation. In it, I explain how EO13769 and other attacks on science threaten the purpose and functioning of the AOM. The case explores a relatively understudied aspect of leadership: the identity of an organization as distinct from the identity of its leader. It also underscores the importance of strengthening democratic institutions of science. I argue that the issuance of statements of condemnation—while important—does not exhaust our responsibilities in society as scholars for investigating, reporting, defending, and protecting the truth about what is going on in the world around us. I conclude by calling us to redouble our commitment to a defining purpose of the AOM, which is to support the scholarship necessary to overcome polarizing politicization of complex social issues.

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