As much as I hate the high political season and all the crap we have to listen to while it’s going on, one positive aspect is that we get to see all kinds of crazy studies done that try to explain the differences between conservatives and liberals.  You know what I mean, the studies that try to explain why conservatives are all anally retentive and wear pajamas to bed while secretly dreaming of themselves playing a part in cheap S&M movies, while on the other hand liberals profess to love everyone but wonder why they have to live cheek to jowell with that smelly immigrant family that just moved in next door. Well, I just stumbled across an article about one such study that explores the households of conservatives and liberals.

The study published in The Journal of Political Psychology doesn’t look at the size of peoples houses, rather it looks at how they keep their house.  In other words they looked at what kind of stuff people have in their houses and what state of order they their stuff in.  Surprise, surprise they found that conservatives are generally neat and orderly while liberals tend to be messier.  Also, they found that liberals keep lots of books and art, while conservatives tend toward calendars, stamps and laundry baskets.

The study also says that conservatives’ living spaces and offices are
well lighted and adorned with flags, especially US flags, and sports
memorabilia.   The article doesn’t mention how the liberals’ offices were lighted or adorned, but I’m imagining lava lamps and posters of Che Guevera.

Not everyone agrees with the findings: 

Political scientist Evan Charney
dismisses links made by the studies between personality and ideology.
"There’s a lot of bad science here," says Charney, a fellow at the
Institute for Genome Sciences & Policy at Duke University.

Well he’s from Duke so what does he know?

Personally I buy these findings.  I consider myself a centrist and my office and living spaces bear that out.  I’m the poster boy for "pile, don’t file" and I’ve been able to live the last four years without a dresser drawer to my name.  I find that piling my folded clothes on a chair next to my bed makes for effective wardrobe selection in the morning.  I have books and magazines stacked next to my bed and desk, but don’t like it when they’re strewn hither and yon.  Yet I wouldn’t know fine art if it bit me in the ass and my musical tastes would make a critic vomit.  Yep, I’d say this study supports my contention that I’m solidly in the middle.