Posted on 05/07/2013 3:09:53 PM PDT by JerseyanExile
While liberals are deploying behavioral science with stunning results, conservatives have failed to follow up on their success three decades ago with the psychology of ‘broken windows.’ Here are several policy initiatives with which to begin.
In 1982, social scientist James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published their “Broken Windows” article in The Atlantic, an idea that launched a savvy assault on crime. One unrepaired broken window, they posited, signals a community’s indifference and leads to many broken windows. “Vandalism can occur anywhere once communal barriers — the sense of mutual regard and the obligations of civility — are lowered by actions that seem to signal that ‘no one cares.’”
Fighting crime became a Republican wedge issue, and the psychology of broken windows served as the weapon of choice. Rudy Giuliani wielded it most famously as mayor of New York City by vigorously policing minor crimes. In 1998, Giuliani said, “Obviously, murder and graffiti are two vastly different crimes. But they are part of the same continuum, and a climate that tolerates one is more likely to tolerate the other.”
It seemed to work. Thirty years after “Broken Windows,” some of New York City’s citizens aren’t even aware of its crime-ridden past.
The broken windows story is a true conservative success rooted in social science. Yet since then, especially in recent years, conservatives have not followed up with similar public policy formulation and implementation. Meanwhile, the Left is deploying knowledge from emerging fields, such as applied behavioral science, with stunning success.
Witness the 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns. Both times, President Obama’s camp employed what Time and The New York Times called a “dream team”: a consortium of psychologists and behavioral scientists whose research influenced messaging, daily operations, canvassing, and addressing of rumors.
(Excerpt) Read more at american.com ...
Read this guy, he has an interesting take on it
http://www.anonymousconservative.com/blog/home-page/
>>Marriage is better for the health of parents and children — their physical health, their financial health, and their mental and academic health.
Even with this evidence that marriage provides a higher standard of living than single parenting or cohabiting, federal policies have created curious disincentives for marriage. <<
Dan Quayle was 100% correct about that selfish b!tch Murphy Brown.
While most psychologists are liberal, the facts of behavioral science are conservative. The problem is not with the science, it is with conservatives, who are either deliberately ignorant or just not well enough educated to know to pick up a powerful tool laying at their feet.
Very interesting. It dovetails with what I’ve been writing about libs being Narcissists (& he has a couple of articles on that too!)
Thanks.
BTTT!
Thank you for the link, Grace. I’ve been tied up for the past couple of weeks, so I missed it, but I appreciate the help.
Exactly correct. Conservatives need to look to the science and tout it. Social science results point to God’s laws and guidance as best in human affairs.
I suspect that it is simply reality which liberalism tries to contravene.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.