Study: Everyone hates environmentalists and feminists

New research suggests people tend to hold negative views of political and social activists

By Tom Jacobs Thursday, Sep 26, 2013

Why don’t people behave in more environmentally friendly ways? New research presents one uncomfortable answer: They don’t want to be associated with environmentalists.   That’s the conclusion of troubling new research from Canada, which similarly finds support for feminist goals is hampered by a dislike of feminists.

Participants held strongly negative stereotypes about such activists, and those feelings reduced their willingness “to adopt the behaviors that these activities promoted,” reports a research team led by University of Toronto psychologist Nadia Bashir. This surprisingly cruel caricaturing, the researchers conclude, plays “a key role in creating resistance to social change.”   Writing in the European Journal of Social Psychology, Bashir and her colleagues describe a series of studies documenting this dynamic. They began with three pilot studies, which found people hold stereotyped views of environmentalists and feminists…..To Read More…..

My Take – So, their advice is to hide the fact that they’re nuts in order to get what they want.  Let’s get past the idea the activists don’t already know this.  The left understands that before they can attain any successes through less confrontational methods they must get everyone’s attention, and that usually involves obnoxious and even violent behavior.  They have been using both tactics from the beginning.  The real problem is the media has been complicit with the activists in keeping society from being clearly informed about what these activists truly represent.