Conservatives think Colbert only pretends to be joking.

Many say that academia is biased towards liberalism.  In some ways I believe this is correct, in that I believe more professors would describe themselves as liberal rather than conservative.   I don’t think that this means they are unprofessional and biased against conservative students.  As this talk by Jonathan Haidt (see my previous post) demonstrates, one can be honest about your own personal views, while still furthering communication between liberals and conservatives.

But political psychology is a touchy thing.  Take this excerpt from the abstract of a recent study as an example:

The Irony of Satire: Political Ideology and the Motivation to See What You Want to See in The Colbert Report

The International Journal of Press/Politics, Vol. 14, No. 2, 212-231 (2009)

http://hij.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/14/2/212

“… there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements. Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. “

Now, as a liberal, and as someone who has read interviews with Stephen Colbert, I am sure that he is himself liberal and is using irony and satire to poke fun at conservative politics.  A liberal, this is funny, it makes me feel like I have one up on conservatives, who obviously don’t get him, and seem to be making an embarrassingly obvious mistake.

Though that interpretation definitely creates a strong entertainment factor for this study, it isn’t useful.  The questions I should be asking are: what does this say about political communication?  What is the reasoning behind the perceptions of the conservative participants? 

Or even more basic questions like: Was this a well run study? Does this abstract actually say what it appears to say, or will it prove to be more complicated than it first appears if I read the whole study?

Political Psychology is fascinating, and potentially useful.  It can easily be reduced to a game of one-upmanship if we are not careful, but done well, it can help us get along and unravel important political problems from a position of understanding, rather than ridicule.