Those bombastic self-appointed spokespersons who rant from both the political right and left are likely driven by the conviction that their extreme views are shared by the majority of the members of their political party, but they are probably wrong, according to new research. Full Story »
Posted by Derek Hawkins
From the comments, from jrod: Typical psychobabble! A story about a study, laced with probably, maybe, and suggests, ending with a debunking of their own conclusions ... More »
Interesting article about recent studies at Stanford and Ohio State suggesting that political extremists tend to think they speak for the masses. Though it is presented as an opinion, this story provides reasonable factual evidence from multiple sources to back its points.
I like that the piece marshals some research to support the questions it addresses, and I'm intrigued that there may be some proof to the intuitive assumption that many extremists routinely believe they represent a majority, but I think by asking "Why are the loudest political voices we hear coming from the most extreme sources?" the piece goes askew since lots of people are demanding center stage, and it's the person handing out megaphones who determines who gets heard best.
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