Are conservatives more compassionate?

[4sigma]

University professor is about to publish a book which shows that conservatives are more charitable than liberals:

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/204/story_20419_1.html

Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks is about to become the darling of the religious right in America -- and it's making him nervous.

The child of academics, raised in a liberal household and educated in the liberal arts, Brooks has written a book that concludes religious conservatives donate far more money than secular liberals to all sorts of charitable activities, irrespective of income.

In the book, he cites extensive data analysis to demonstrate that values advocated by conservatives -- from church attendance and two-parent families to the Protestant work ethic and a distaste for government-funded social services -- make conservatives more generous than liberals.

He also appears to have controlled for other variables:

He's a number cruncher who relied primarily on 10 databases assembled over the past decade, mostly from scientific surveys. The data are adjusted for variables such as age, gender, race and income to draw fine-point conclusions.

His Wall Street Journal pieces are researched, but a little light.

His book, he says, is carefully documented to withstand the scrutiny of other academics, which he said he encourages.

The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money.

[SamTheEagle]

After Katrina hit, Ted Rall wrote an article in which he said that people shouldn't donate money to help with the relief, because it's the government's job to do that. That made me kind of mad.

[Pseudolus]

Prediction: The counter-argument will be that the charities conservatives give to aren't "real" charities, or are otherwise less worthy than the charities liberals give to.

[krank]

the charities conservatives give to aren't "real" charities, or are otherwise less worthy than the charities liberals give to

[SirVLCIV]

The book's basic findings are that conservatives who practice religion, live in traditional nuclear families and reject the notion that the government should engage in income redistribution are the most generous Americans, by any measure.

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity. They want everyone's tax dollars to support charitable causes and are reluctant to write checks to those causes, even when governments don't provide them with enough money.

I'd be interested in how he got the numbers to prove "they want blah blah blah". Oh, that's right, that's probably the article putting its own bias on his findings

I would also like to see the charts distributed by income and percentage of income, and how 'liberal' was separated from 'conservative' (were the political and religious beliefs controlled for as a lump, or separately? - is it possible that there are 'liberal' individuals who are religious and live in traditional families? How was this controlled for?).

::shrugs:: Show me the actual book, instead of a biased review of it

Conversely, secular liberals who believe fervently in government entitlement programs give far less to charity.

Well, duh! How about secular liberals who DON'T believe fervently in government entitlement programs?

[Griffin 1]

Originally Posted by Pseudolus

Prediction: The counter-argument will be that the charities conservatives give to aren't "real" charities, or are otherwise less worthy than the charities liberals give to.

Can't you wait for Hatter to come along and talk about that super-nice church he drives past in the snazzy neighborhood?

[Griffin 1]

Originally Posted by SirVLCIV

Well, duh! How about secular liberals who DON'T believe fervently in government entitlement programs?

What about that guy?

[The Diabolical Biz Markie]

They are talking about "religious conservatives". Since there is pretty good intersection between "religious conservative" and "devout member of whatever faith you are talking about", all this analysis shows is that religious people are more charitable than non-religious. Which, given the compassion for one's fellow man is a central tenet of most established religions, is not particularly surprising.

[SirVLCIV]

::shrugs:: I'd be interested in looking at the data, minus the web-site's bias.

I'm a generous guy, always have been. I'm not religious (at all), generally socially liberal (although I'm more libertarian liberal, as I don't agree with the use of law to enforce social ideals), and fiscally conservative.

On the other hand, you have the Salvation Army (was it the current leader of the Salvation Army, or the previous one, who had a salary of like $16000 a year? No, I'm not forgetting any zeroes - he was paid living wages, and that's it). That's insane generosity.

[2pac Shakur]

Are tips included in this?