If this doesn't make you think

A Washington Post article says conservatives give more money, donate more time, and give more blood than liberals.

Makes you think.

A quote:

People who reject the idea that "government has a responsibility to reduce income inequality" give an average of four times more than people who accept that proposition.

My initial thought was conservatives probably are more religious and give to churches. True.

Brooks demonstrates a correlation between charitable behavior and "the values that lie beneath" liberal and conservative labels. Two influences on charitable behavior are religion and attitudes about the proper role of government.

The single biggest predictor of someone's altruism, Willett says, is religion. It increasingly correlates with conservative political affiliations because, as Brooks's book says, "the percentage of self-described Democrats who say they have 'no religion' has more than quadrupled since the early 1970s." America is largely divided between religious givers and secular nongivers, and the former are disproportionately conservative. One demonstration that religion is a strong determinant of charitable behavior is that the least charitable cohort is a relatively small one -- secular conservatives.