How Do Orderliness and Disgust Shape Politics?

TL;DR

Conscientiousness supports long-term success through industriousness, orderliness, planning, persistence, and delayed gratification, but its benefits depend partly on a stable social environment. Orderliness is also associated with disgust and authoritarianism, especially when openness is low, showing how useful personality tendencies can become politically and socially dangerous when taken to pathological extremes.

Transcript

so we're going to discuss some very rough things today um maybe you're somewhat accustomed to that already but this is particularly brutal I think um I'm going to tell talk to you about a body of research that's been produced over about the last 10 years and I think it it's per perhaps it's it's a body of research that might outline some of the mos... Read More

Key Insights

• Conscientiousness is composed of industriousness and orderliness, two related but distinct aspects. Industriousness concerns implementing plans, working efficiently, resisting distraction, and finishing tasks, while orderliness concerns structure and is associated with disgust and authoritarianism.
• Temperament is a filtering mechanism that shapes perception before conscious political arguments are constructed. Because the world is too complicated to process without selection, personal values and temperamental tendencies influence which facts become noticeable, important, and persuasive.
• Political orientation is associated with personality traits. People leaning left tend to be higher in openness and lower in conscientiousness, especially orderliness, while people leaning right tend to show the opposite pattern of lower openness and higher conscientiousness.
• Every personality advantage carries a potential cost. Agreeableness supports empathy, politeness, and teamwork but can weaken self-advocacy, while extreme disagreeableness can become antisocial. Conscientiousness similarly offers major benefits while creating vulnerabilities under certain social conditions.
• Conscientiousness is described as a strong long-term predictor of job performance and life success after intelligence, particularly among managers, administrators, and students. Its practical value comes from dutiful behavior, sustained work, delayed gratification, and preparation for future needs.
• Delayed gratification works best when the future remains sufficiently stable. If political or economic conditions become radically unstable, saving wealth and sacrificing present rewards may cease to be a reasonable strategy because accumulated resources can suddenly lose their value.
• Hyperinflation can punish conscientious people who worked, saved, and planned for the future. The lecture uses Germany during the 1920s to illustrate how the destruction of savings can leave prudent citizens feeling profoundly betrayed by the social system.
• Intelligence is not the same as conscientious implementation. Fluid intelligence and conscientiousness have a reported correlation of zero in the discussed research, suggesting that creating abstract plans and consistently putting those plans into action depend on different capacities.

Questions & Answers

Q: How does temperament shape political beliefs?

Temperament shapes political beliefs by influencing the values and perceptual filters people use to navigate a complicated world. Individuals cannot attend equally to every available fact, so their temperamental tendencies orient them toward particular concerns. Political arguments may therefore partly rationalize deeper differences in what people notice, value, and treat as threatening or desirable.

Q: What is trait conscientiousness made of?

Trait conscientiousness is composed of industriousness and orderliness. Industriousness includes starting work, carrying out plans, staying focused, avoiding wasted time, making decisions, completing tasks, and resisting distraction. Orderliness concerns a preference for structure and is associated in the lecture with disgust and authoritarianism, especially among people who are low in openness to experience.

Q: Why is conscientiousness useful for long-term success?

Conscientiousness supports long-term success because conscientious people tend to be dutiful, industrious, orderly, and willing to sacrifice present rewards for future benefits. They work hard, save resources, complete plans, and avoid impulsive choices. The lecture describes conscientiousness as a strong predictor of job performance and as the best predictor of life success after intelligence.

Q: When can conscientiousness become a poor strategy?

Conscientiousness can become a poor strategy when social or economic conditions are radically unstable. Saving wealth, delaying gratification, and investing effort in the future assume that the surrounding system will preserve at least some value. During hyperinflation or severe upheaval, accumulated savings can disappear, leaving prudent people worse off despite their discipline and sacrifice.

Q: How did hyperinflation affect conscientious people in 1920s Germany?

Hyperinflation in Germany during the 1920s wiped out savings accumulated by people who had worked, planned, and sacrificed for the future. According to the lecture, this destruction particularly harmed the prudent members of society and produced a powerful feeling that the entire system had betrayed them. It occurred amid territorial losses, political upheaval, and the aftermath of war.

Q: Why are intelligence and industriousness not the same?

Intelligence and industriousness are not the same because developing an abstract plan differs from implementing it consistently. The discussed research found a zero correlation between fluid intelligence and conscientiousness. Abstract thought requires separating possible plans from immediate action, while industriousness appears to involve beginning work, sustaining effort, resisting distraction, and completing the chosen plan.

Q: How have researchers tried to measure industriousness in the laboratory?

Researchers tried numerous laboratory tasks to find behaviors that distinguish industrious people, including a task requiring participants to scan rows of letters and circle every occurrence of a particular letter. Although the task appeared to require diligence, its correlation with conscientiousness was zero and it functioned as an intelligence task. Language use provided the closest available estimate, but resembled personality self-report measurement.

Q: What is the connection between orderliness, disgust, and authoritarianism?

Orderliness is associated with disgust and authoritarianism, particularly among people who are low in openness to experience. The lecture presents this relationship as a potential pathological cost of an otherwise useful personality tendency. When sensitivity to disorder and contamination becomes extreme and politically directed, it can support destructive judgments about groups, including the dynamics invoked in discussing Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Political beliefs are partly shaped by temperament because people need filtering mechanisms to navigate an overwhelmingly complicated world. Temperamental values influence what individuals notice, prioritize, and interpret. Liberals tend toward higher openness and lower conscientiousness, especially orderliness, while conservatives tend toward lower openness and higher conscientiousness, particularly orderliness.

• Conscientiousness combines industriousness and orderliness. Industrious people carry out plans, begin work readily, resist distraction, finish tasks, and avoid postponing decisions. Although conscientiousness predicts job performance and broader life success, researchers have struggled to identify laboratory tasks that reliably distinguish industrious people or explain the psychological mechanisms behind effective implementation.

• Conscientious behavior often sacrifices present pleasure for future rewards, making it effective when social and economic conditions remain stable. During radical instability or hyperinflation, accumulated savings can disappear, punishing prudent people. Orderliness also carries a darker risk because its association with disgust and authoritarianism can contribute to destructive political judgments and actions.