Success of Tea Party, Failure of Occupy Due To Misperceptions By Its Members

Posted by | November 19, 2013 08:41 | Filed under: Contributors Mark Quincy Adams Opinion Politics Top Stories

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It’s a political puzzle. Why is it that Conservatives organized more quickly and effectively through the Tea Party than Liberals were able to via Occupy Wall Street?

“The Tea Party movement developed a succinct set of goals in its incipient stages and effectively mobilized its members toward large-scale social change quite quickly,” says psychological scientist Chadly Stern of New York University. “In contrast, despite its popularity, the liberal Occupy Wall Street movement struggled to reach agreement on their collective mission and ultimately failed to enact large-scale social change.”

New research published in the Journal Psychological Science, says it’s because of the way each side perceives their group unity. Liberals, it was found, tend to underestimate the level of agreement among their ranks, inhibiting the organizational process and effectiveness in developing a coherent strategy.  Conservatives, on the other hand, are more effective because they overestimate the agreement within their group.

Liberals showed what the researchers call “truly false uniqueness,” perceiving their beliefs as more divergent from the beliefs of other liberals than they actually were. Moderates and conservatives, on the other hand, showed evidence of “truly false consensus,” perceiving their beliefs to be more similar to those of other members of their political group than they actually were.

It is these perceptions – or misperceptions actually – that have resulted in the more effective organization by groups with far right beliefs. But that strength, the study argues, is also its weakness and may ultimately doom the long-term success of the Conservative Movement.
Liberal social movements might struggle to develop solidarity and formulate shared goals within their ranks, both because liberals want to maintain unique beliefs and because they underestimate the amount of agreement among their members,” Stern explains. “Conservative social movements might initially capitalize on perceiving agreement to galvanize their ranks, but their inaccurate perceptions could impair group progress when actual agreement is necessary.

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Copyright 2013 Liberaland
By: Mark Quincy Adams

A proud 'pragmatic progressive' Mark Quincy Adams has been a political
talk show host and prolific pontificator since 1992. Find him on Facebook and Twitter @politicalglutton