TY - JOUR
T1 - Elective affinities
T2 - On the psychological bases of left-right differences
AU - Jost, John T.
N1 - Funding Information:
This article is based on a lecture delivered at Princeton University on October 14, 2008, in the “Dilemmas of Inequality” lecture series associated with the Joint Degree Program in Social Policy. There I benefited from extremely helpful discussions with John Darley, Susan Fiske, Katherine Newman, and Stacey Sinclair, among many others. An earlier version was presented at the International Congress of Psychology meeting in Berlin in July 2008, where I received feedback and inspiration from Gian Vittorio Caprara, Stanley Feldman, Shalom Schwartz, and Kip Williams. I also thank David N. Smith for reading recommendations regarding Weber’s concept of “elective affinities” and Tina Schweizer for administrative assistance. The writing of this article was supported in part by the New York University Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response and the National Science Foundation (Grant # BCS-0617558).
PY - 2009/4
Y1 - 2009/4
N2 - Drawing on the concept of "elective affinities" from the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Max Weber, I seek to articulate a scientific framework for understanding psychological receptiveness to ideological messages. More specifically, I summarize converging lines of research that link basic personality, cognitive, motivational, and even physiological processes to ideological differences between left and right. I also discuss situational factors such as the presence of threat that increase the affinity for political conservatism through its effect on "cognitive narrowing". These findings and many others suggest that, contrary to Wildavsky (1989) and other skeptics, ideology is a meaningful force in people's lives and that it may be rooted in fundamental psychological antinomies, including preferences for stability versus change, order versus complexity, familiarity versus novelty, conformity versus creativity, and loyalty versus rebellion. Directions for further research are also discussed.
AB - Drawing on the concept of "elective affinities" from the writings of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Max Weber, I seek to articulate a scientific framework for understanding psychological receptiveness to ideological messages. More specifically, I summarize converging lines of research that link basic personality, cognitive, motivational, and even physiological processes to ideological differences between left and right. I also discuss situational factors such as the presence of threat that increase the affinity for political conservatism through its effect on "cognitive narrowing". These findings and many others suggest that, contrary to Wildavsky (1989) and other skeptics, ideology is a meaningful force in people's lives and that it may be rooted in fundamental psychological antinomies, including preferences for stability versus change, order versus complexity, familiarity versus novelty, conformity versus creativity, and loyalty versus rebellion. Directions for further research are also discussed.
KW - Conservatism
KW - Ideology
KW - Liberalism
KW - Political orientation
KW - Religion
KW - Threat
KW - Uncertainty
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U2 - 10.1080/10478400903028599
DO - 10.1080/10478400903028599
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:68749104573
SN - 1047-840X
VL - 20
SP - 129
EP - 141
JO - Psychological Inquiry
JF - Psychological Inquiry
IS - 2-3
ER -