I think these studies are absurd on lots of levels. But since we’re talking about them. Couldn’t you argue that sensitive, emotionally expressive children grow up to be conservatives while arrogant children who think they have all the answers become liberals? Of course, that would be stupid too, but if the results were reversed you can be sure these people would be arguing that the whiny kids became liberals because they were attuned to injustice or some such and the self-confident kids were intellectually incurious, having all the answers.

Here’s a question: since the single best predictor of political orientation is the orientation of your parents, how many parents of this sample were liberal? My guess is — as Derb notes — is most of them. Perhaps the conservative kids have conservative parents and the whining is a red herring?

Just a thought.