The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

The word conservative is defined as "disposed to preserve existing conditions, institutions, etc., or to restore traditional ones and to limit change." Why then is it that a new study shows self-described conservatives are turned off by the thought of helping conserve energy and the environment? The study, conducted by Dena M. Gromet, Howard Kunreuther, and Richard P. Larrick of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America , published the following abstract: "This research demonstrates how promoting the environment can negatively affect adoption of energy efficiency in the United States because of the political polarization surrounding environmental issues. Study 1 demonstrated that more politically conservative individuals were less in favor of investment in energy-efficient technology than were those who were more politically liberal. This finding was driven primarily by the lessened psychological value that more con...