1
|
It takes guts to be a rebel! A dynamic coordination account of the relationship between motivational reactivity, social morality, and political ideology. Politics Life Sci 2023; 41:28-37. [PMID: 36877106 DOI: 10.1017/pls.2022.5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
This study tests two sets of competing hypotheses about the relationship between trait reactivity to positive and negative stimuli (i.e., motivational reactivity), moral stances on social principles (i.e., social morality), and political ideology. The classic view contends that a specific political ideology or social morality results from a specific motivational reactivity pattern, whereas the dynamic coordination account suggests that trait motivational reactivity modulates an individual's political ideology and social morality as a result of the majority political beliefs in their immediate social context. A survey using subjects recruited from a liberal-leaning social context was conducted to test these hypotheses. Results support the dynamic coordination account. Reactivity to negativity (indexed by defensive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of the dominant social morality and political ideology. Reactivity to positivity (indexed by appetitive system activation scores) is associated with the adoption of nondominant social moral and political stances.
Collapse
|
2
|
Choi M, Karnaze MM, Lench HC, Levine LJ. Do liberals value emotion more than conservatives? Political partisanship and Lay beliefs about the functionality of emotion. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2022. [DOI: 10.1007/s11031-022-09997-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
AbstractRelying on feelings to guide thoughts and plans may be functional from the perspective of the individual but threaten the cohesion of social groups. Thus, liberals, who prioritize caring and fairness for individuals, may view emotion as more functional than do conservatives, who prioritize preserving social groups, hierarchies, and institutions. To test this, participants in three studies (total N = 1,355) rated political partisanship, beliefs about the functionality of emotion, and well-being. Study 3 also assessed how much participants prioritized “individualizing” versus “socially binding” values (Graham et al., 2011). Across all studies, the more liberal participants were, the more they viewed emotion as functional, despite reporting less emotional well-being. In Study 3, the link between liberalism and valuing emotion was mediated by more liberal participants’ greater endorsement of individualizing than socially binding values. These results suggest that emotion is viewed as more functional by those who prioritize the needs of individuals, but as less functional by those who prioritize the cohesion of social groups.
Collapse
|
3
|
Solak N, Sümer N, Uluğ ÖM, Jost JT. System‐based emotions in Turkey and support for versus opposition to the Gezi Park protests. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY 2022. [DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Nevin Solak
- Department of Psychology TED University Cankaya Ankara Turkey
| | - Nebi Sümer
- Department of Psychology, Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Tuzla İstanbul Turkey
| | | | - John T. Jost
- Department of Psychology New York University New York New York USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Zmigrod L. A Psychology of Ideology: Unpacking the Psychological Structure of Ideological Thinking. PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE 2022; 17:1072-1092. [PMID: 35231196 PMCID: PMC9274788 DOI: 10.1177/17456916211044140] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/11/2022]
Abstract
The psychological study of ideology has traditionally emphasized the content of ideological beliefs, guided by questions about what people believe, such as why people believe in omniscient gods or fascist worldviews. This theoretical focus has led to siloed subdisciplines separately dealing with political, religious, moral, and prejudiced attitudes. The fractionation has fostered a neglect of the cognitive structure of ideological worldviews and associated questions about why ideologies-in all their forms-are so compelling to the human mind. Here I argue that it is essential to consider the nature of ideological cognition across a multitude of ideologies. I offer a multidimensional, empirically tractable framework of ideological thinking, suggesting it can be conceptualized as a style of thinking that is rigid in its adherence to a doctrine and resistance to evidence-based belief-updating and favorably oriented toward an in-group and antagonistic to out-groups. The article identifies the subcomponents of ideological thinking and highlights that ideological thinking constitutes a meaningful psychological phenomenon that merits direct scholarly investigation and analysis. By emphasizing conceptual precision, methodological directions, and interdisciplinary integration across the political and cognitive sciences, the article illustrates the potential of this framework as a catalyst for developing a rigorous domain-general psychology of ideology.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Leor Zmigrod
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, and Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Zmigrod L. Mental Computations of Ideological Choice and Conviction: The Utility of Integrating Psycho-Economics and Bayesian Models of Belief. PSYCHOLOGICAL INQUIRY 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/1047840x.2022.2065134] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/17/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Leor Zmigrod
- Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
- Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Pliskin R, Halperin E. The Study of Affective Processes in Political Contexts: Accomplishments and Challenges. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2021; 2:345-352. [PMID: 34870238 PMCID: PMC8627840 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-021-00096-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2021] [Accepted: 11/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
|
7
|
Political Orientation as Psychological Defense or Basic Disposition? A Social Neuroscience Examination. COGNITIVE AFFECTIVE & BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCE 2021; 22:586-599. [PMID: 34766245 PMCID: PMC9090880 DOI: 10.3758/s13415-021-00965-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
Psychological views on political orientation generally agree that conservatism is associated with negativity bias but disagree on the form of that association. Some view conservatism as a psychological defense that insulates from negative stimuli and events. Others view conservatism as a consequence of increased dispositional sensitivity to negative stimuli and events. Further complicating matters, research shows that conservatives are sometimes more and sometimes less sensitive to negative stimuli and events. The current research integrates these opposing views and results. We reasoned that conservatives should typically be less sensitive to negative stimuli if conservative beliefs act as a psychological defense. However, when core components of conservative beliefs are threatened, the psychological defense may fall, and conservatives may show heightened sensitivity to negative stimuli. In two ERP studies, participants were randomly assigned to either an ostensibly real economic threat or a nonthreatening control condition. To measure reactivity to negative stimuli, we indexed the P3 component to aversive white noise bursts in an auditory oddball paradigm. In both studies, the relationship between increased conservatism and P3 mean amplitude was negative in the control condition but positive in threat condition (this relationship was stronger in Study 2). In Study 2, source localization of the P3 component revealed that, after threat, conservatism was associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate cortex and dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, regions associated with conflict-related processes. These results demonstrate that the link between conservatism and negativity bias is context-dependent, i.e., dependent on threat experiences.
Collapse
|
8
|
Bellovary AK, Young NA, Goldenberg A. Left- and Right-Leaning News Organizations Use Negative Emotional Content and Elicit User Engagement Similarly. AFFECTIVE SCIENCE 2021; 2:391-396. [PMID: 34423311 PMCID: PMC8364833 DOI: 10.1007/s42761-021-00046-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/15/2020] [Accepted: 03/22/2021] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
Abstract
Negativity has historically dominated news content; however, little research has examined how news organizations use affect on social media, where content is generally positive. In the current project we ask a few questions: Do news organizations on Twitter use negative or positive language and which type of affect garners more engagement on social media? Does the political orientation of news organizations impact the affect expressed and engagement tweets receive on social media? The goal of this project is to examine these questions by investigating tweets of 24 left- and 20 right-leaning news organizations (140,358 tweets). Results indicated that negative affect was expressed more than positive affect. Additionally, negativity predicted engagement with news organizations' tweets, but positivity did not. Finally, there were no differences in affect between left- and right-leaning political orientations. Overall, it appears that for news organizations, negativity is more frequent and more impactful than positivity. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00046-w.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea K. Bellovary
- Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 N Kenmore Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 USA
| | - Nathaniel A. Young
- Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 N Kenmore Ave, Chicago, IL 60614 USA
| | - Amit Goldenberg
- Harvard Business School, 25 Harvard Way, Boston, MA 02163 USA
| |
Collapse
|
9
|
Solak N, Tamir M, Sümer N, Jost JT, Halperin E. Expressive suppression as an obstacle to social change: Linking system justification, emotion regulation, and collective action. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2021; 45:661-682. [PMID: 34149120 PMCID: PMC8196296 DOI: 10.1007/s11031-021-09883-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/01/2021] [Indexed: 10/27/2022]
Abstract
Research on system justification theory suggests that justifying the societal status quo decreases negative emotions, leading to less collective action. In this investigation, we propose that the degree to which negative emotions mediate the link between system justification and collective action may depend upon whether individuals tend to suppress the expression of their negative emotions. We tested this hypothesis in the diverse socio-political contexts of Turkey, Israel, and the U.S. In one correlational study (Study 1) and three experimental studies (Studies 2-4), we observed that the link between system justification and willingness to participate in collective action through anger (Studies 1-2 and 4) and guilt (Study 3) was moderated by expressive suppression. We found that negative emotions mediated the association between system justification and collective action among those who suppress the expression of their emotions less frequently, but not those who use expressive suppression more frequently. These findings suggest that emotion regulation may undermine, rather than facilitate, efforts to engage in collective action even among people who are low in system justification. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11031-021-09883-5.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Maya Tamir
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| | | | | | - Eran Halperin
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
| |
Collapse
|
10
|
De Dreu CKW, Pliskin R, Rojek-Giffin M, Méder Z, Gross J. Political games of attack and defence. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200135. [PMID: 33611990 PMCID: PMC7934902 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0135] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/16/2023] Open
Abstract
Political conflicts often revolve around changing versus defending a status quo. We propose to capture the dynamics between proponents and opponents of political change in terms of an asymmetric game of attack and defence with its equilibrium in mixed strategies. Formal analyses generate predictions about effort expended on revising and protecting the status quo, the form and function of false signalling and cheap talk, how power differences impact conflict intensity and the likelihood of status quo revision. Laboratory experiments on the neurocognitive and hormonal foundations of attack and defence reveal that out-of-equilibrium investments in attack emerge because of non-selfish preferences, limited capacity to compute costs and benefits and optimistic beliefs about the chances of winning from one's rival. We conclude with implications for the likelihood of political change and inertia, and discuss the role of ideology in political games of attack and defence. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The political brain: neurocognitive and computational mechanisms’.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Carsten K W De Dreu
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.,Center for Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
| | - Ruthie Pliskin
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Michael Rojek-Giffin
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Zsombor Méder
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Jörg Gross
- Social, Economic and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| |
Collapse
|
11
|
Intrinsic functional connectivity of blue and red brains: neurobiological evidence of different stress resilience between political attitudes. Sci Rep 2020; 10:15877. [PMID: 32985590 PMCID: PMC7522714 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-72980-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2019] [Accepted: 08/06/2020] [Indexed: 11/08/2022] Open
Abstract
Conservatives are more sensitive to threatening/anxious situations in perceptual and cognitive levels, experiencing emotional responses and stress, while liberals are more responsive to but tolerant of ambiguous and uncertain information. Interestingly, conservatives have greater psychological well-being and are more satisfied with their lives than liberals despite their psychological vulnerability to stress caused by threat and anxiety sensitivities. We investigated whether conservatives have greater resilience and self-regulation capacity, which are suggested to be psychological buffers that enhance psychological well-being, than liberals and moderates. We also explored associations between intrinsic functional brain organization and these psychological resources to expand our neurobiological understanding of self-regulatory processes in neuropolitics. We found that conservatives, compared to liberals and moderates, had greater psychological resilience and self-regulation capacity that were attributable to greater impulse control and causal reasoning. Stronger intrinsic connectivities between the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and precuneus and between the insula and frontal pole/OFC in conservatives were correlated with greater resilience and self-regulation capacity. These results suggest the neural underpinnings that may allow conservatives to manage the psychological stress and achieve greater life satisfaction. This study provides neuroscientific evidence for the different responses of liberals and conservatives to politically relevant social issues.
Collapse
|
12
|
Conceptual, empirical, and practical problems with the claim that intolerance, prejudice, and discrimination are equivalent on the political left and right. Curr Opin Behav Sci 2020. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.07.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
|