UCBerkeleyNews: Researchers help define what makes a political conservative:

Four
researchers who culled through 50 years of research literature about
the psychology of conservatism report that at the core of political
conservatism is the resistance to change and a tolerance for
inequality, and that some of the common psychological factors linked to
political conservatism include:

  • Fear and aggression
  • Dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity
  • Uncertainty avoidance
  • Need for cognitive closure
  • Terror management