What is "conservatism"

Conservatism \Con*serv"a*tism\, n. [For conservatism.] The disposition and tendency to preserve what is established; opposition to change; the habit of mind; or conduct, of a conservative.

1835, in reference to the Conservative party in British politics; from conservative + -ism. From 1840 in reference to conservative principles generally.

n. 1 A political philosophy that advocates traditional values. 2 A risk-averse attitude or approach.

n. a political or theological orientation advocating the preservation of the best in society and opposing radical changes [syn: conservativism]

Conservatism as a political and social philosophy promotes retaining traditional social institutions in the context of culture and civilization. Some conservatives seek to preserve things as they are, emphasizing stability and continuity, while others, called reactionaries, oppose modernism and seek a return to "the way things were". The first established use of the term in a political context originated with François-René de Chateaubriand in 1818, during the period of Bourbon restoration that sought to roll back the policies of the French Revolution. The term, historically associated with right-wing politics, has since been used to describe a wide range of views.

There is no single set of policies that are universally regarded as conservative, because the meaning of conservatism depends on what is considered traditional in a given place and time. Thus conservatives from different parts of the world—each upholding their respective traditions—may disagree on a wide range of issues. Edmund Burke, an 18th-century politician who opposed the French Revolution but supported the American Revolution, is credited as one of the main theorists of conservatism in Britain in the 1790s. According to Quintin Hogg, the chairman of the British Conservative Party in 1959, "Conservatism is not so much a philosophy as an attitude, a constant force, performing a timeless function in the development of a free society, and corresponding to a deep and permanent requirement of human nature itself."

Conservatism is a set of political philosophies that favour tradition.

Conservatism or conservative may also refer to:

• Conservative (language), a language form that has changed relatively little over its history
• Conservatism (Bayesian), a cognitive bias in Bayesian belief revision
• Convention of conservatism, a policy in accounting of anticipating possible future losses but not future gains
• Epistemic conservatism, a view about the structure of reasons or justification for belief
• Conservative force, a physical force whose work is path-independent

In cognitive psychology and decision science, conservatism or conservatism bias is a bias in human information processing. This bias describes human belief revision in which persons over-weigh the prior distribution ( base rate) and under-weigh new sample evidence when compared to Bayesian belief-revision.

According to the theory, "opinion change is very orderly, and usually proportional to the numbers of Bayes' Theorem - but it is insufficient in amount". In other words, persons update their prior beliefs as new evidence becomes available, but they do so more slowly than they would if they used Bayes' theorem.

This bias was discussed by Ward Edwards in 1968, who reported on experiments like the following one:

There are two bookbags, one containing 700 red and 300 blue chips, the other containing 300 red and 700 blue. Take one of the bags. Now, you sample, randomly, with replacement after each chip. In 12 samples, you get 8 reds and 4 blues. what is the probability that this is the predominantly red bag?

Most subjects chose an answer around .7. The correct answer according to Bayes' Theorem is closer to .97. Edwards suggested that people updated beliefs conservatively, in accordance with Bayes' Theorem more slowly. They updated from .5 incorrectly according to an observed bias in several experiments.