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Abstract

What explains the contents of political belief systems? A widespread view is that they derive from abstract values, like equality, tolerance, and authority. Here, we challenge this view, arguing instead that belief systems derive from political alliance structures that vary across nations and time periods. When partisans mobilize support for their political allies, they generate patchwork narratives that appeal to ad-hoc, and often incompatible, moral principles. In the first part of the paper, we explain how people choose their allies, and how they support their allies using propagandistic tactics. In the second part, we show how these choices and tactics give rise to political alliance structures, with their strange bedfellows, and the idiosyncratic contents of belief systems. If Alliance Theory is correct, then we need a radically different approach to political psychology—one in which belief systems arise not from deep-seated moral values, but from ever-shifting alliances and rivalries.
[Forthcoming in Psychological Inquiry]
Strange bedfellows: the Alliance Theory of political belief systems
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Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, United States
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Strange bedfellows: the Alliance Theory of political belief systems
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*&<1,)
#1
A
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()())7
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#)*)*0)(7(
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J
07E)(*
)
#1,)9&<)
$<)))
3)
)?+))&<+
)))
1))$<+
* *
*I#1)
**)*)
&
Cognitive systems for alliance formation
#)))
0**5);)B3&CC$<3
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)*9)
))F,G;1*$%&@<
#)*6,),;
<*6,),;)
<*6,)*;
*:!&CCJ<1alliance structure, 
&1)5)**E
,5)*)5))
I+))*)*0FG
>
,)**;
B8*)$%&C<)
whether *)whom (;1*$%&@:B
8)0*$%%C:!&CCJ<
Criteria for choosing allies
Similarity
#5)),**
+);2"BI
$%%':2DB.$%%A<)FGF,GFG
,);2$%%A:$%&C<
)));8B
D$%%@:IBK)$%&A:8)&CC'<**,
))FG,+
;&C'%A<#)**
*6)+*
,F)G;D3)B)$%&H<
Transitivity
-)+*77,*
1,9&<(
$<*((;?,)1B
8,$%&&:$%&@:0,$%&><-)*
*(7F
GF)G;1*B!$%&%
@
$%'6$%C:0,$%&><
))
)7)F)G;$%&@:0,$%&>:
$%&H<#)*)F)6G
);!)BD$%%&:I3,
IB!$%&H<.*
))))
;&CJ':.*E,),B
!$%&J:)E=)EB=$%&H:DBE,$%&A:
?,)$%&&:)6LB.$%&C<
Interdependence
-)7**7,
*I+)*,;B6
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;1*B!&CC><!)
;#,$%&'<)
;,BI$%&><;!B
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;3B8)0*$%&H<6

Stochasticity
#*);<
6*)
'
*)
E)-
*)*

**));.)B1$%&C<
Supporting allies in conflicts
#))7*
(),()*0)
3*7propagandistic biases7
)3)*
#))+*

Perpetrator biases
)1
*0
)*0)
;D)B3&CC%:BD)
&CC@:8,$%%%:8BI$%%J:)0D)&CCC<
-*0(
7*))
;DB3E0,$%&H:D)B8$%&H:B,$%&$:
=B$%%@:B,,$%%$:D1B)$%&$:
EM*EB$%%@<
C
Victim biases
=+**10(
*)*)
(*)
;BD)&CC@:D)B3
&CC%:D)&CCCA<-*
*(;",$%&$:"*B
",$%%@:D3B2+$%%':$%&H:?**B
?$%&$:D$%&$:#=BD)$%&$<#))
**FG)
F*6))*Emore E))6
))G;?$%&$:@:D$%&$:#
$%&$:?DB$%%'<3*(
))(6
1,**0)
Attributional biases
36)1)
;,<+
);),)<36+**9)
+);)<
;<1)*
),F6*)*G;D&C@'<
*)**)()
&%
+);.$%%%:8E8B
$%%@:&CC%:8B8)&CC$:B8$%%J:
&C@C:IB,&C@@:1B&C'&:")B.)&C'%<
F)*)*G,*)
**));#)B
&C'C:=,5)B=&CC@:M**B*&CCJ:
!B.)&CC>:)B3&CC&:1BL&C@H<.
Section summary
),1)
choosing allies;*<
supporting allies;*)*)*<3+
*symmetrical 7)7
)(*,-+
+)3choosing allies
+)) 3
supporting allies +*
 3) *)
5)+))**
#1
The contingent political alliance structure of the United States
I)&$,#)),
;!*,B!$%&A:D
$%&'<3#)))*6)
&&
)6*)
))0;$%&':#*0
$%&'<
-,*)(
);#B$%&':.
,BD)*$%&'<3,))&F*G
FG**((NC@
;!*$%&A<1))7
,7))
[Figure 1 near here]
[Figure 2 near here]
3)))4*
)))*O.)*))*
*O*);F*
G:!&CCJ<+)
))**O;.$%&'<
E)1 ?
;)$:D$%&@<16F*0G
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FG9)
)#)("*;&C@%:L,B,$%%>A&6
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;2)B$%$%C<
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));))<FG
1*)*6)))3
)))
))I++)*0+*
*,F*0G;1$%&H<?
+**)
+);3B8)0*$%&A<-
*0*)6*6)
2
6
;1L*.B$%&%$@'6$@C<)))
;$%&'<"*E,
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));8)0,$%&H:)#*B
$%$%<#)6**E
*,#1
&H
))
#*)+
Origins of the contemporary American alliance structure
#*$%))##
 ")!*)*
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8 $%%C< D) $% ) *) ) E  
I     ! . #  &C>H   
).)*##
;#*0$%&'!$6H:8$%%CH<
.)*  ,    6   ) !
     .)*   )     
 ;#*0 $%&' ! A:8 $%%C  A< 1)+ 
  "#7))*0  ))
,7))*))
*0;#*EBE$%&J:1$%&H<#+
)))F,,G;
E):D&C'H<
;,$%$%<1)
* intellectual elites ;  ) <  business elites
;  +):D&C'H:1)$%&$:A6J:3 B 8)0*
$%&H&H>6&J%:D$%&H)@:D$%&>*$C:6DB.
$%&':, $%$%  &J< -      *  
&J
   )    *  )  * , 
,*
3)7)7
)))!*
##)
3-5#9
)+;!+<,
#!+;)*<
)+6FG,);
<))
));M&CC$>:
8$%%CJ:D,$%%@<.how #))
))did 0
;"B"$%$$<
-+))&$*)
*#13
*7)*)*7+
*3)
+3#1
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Explaining political belief systems in the United States
Perpetrator biases in political belief systems
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*;<*
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"*;<+**3*)
);6)!)<
,)(FE)G
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E)FGF*,)G
);8B$%&C<-
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); $%%C<"*;<E)
)**
*.)*
!2;!$%&A:,B!$%&C:2,B
$%&C:L,!B$%$%<*
&'
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*);#*)$%%@-):
$%&>J':$%&@:$%&@<
Victim biases in political belief systems
"*);#
#:)&$<1)#1
**)1)
FG)FE)G+
)*)*
0;$%&J:$%&J:"),B$%&'<
#*)*,
;)*<)*
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$%&@:"),B$%&'<
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Attributional biases in political belief systems
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B8)$%%':B=*$%&&<,*
.)**))
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*))7
7no ideological differences*);
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;.!$%&><1*)))
;,,<*)+);*0
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*)(;.!$%&>*<
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*;L$%&>&J6&@<
1*,**.)**
Summarizing political belief systems
* ))00
!*),*
*;*),)*
*0<)
*;*)-5()*<
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<"**not*
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;*)*,##<
()*;*)!2)
*<));*)
))<)
3+**4#1)
)9*3)
*)
*-
#1),
-)#1&<*
*)$<)+ 
*$
Comparing alliance theory to alternative theories
Intolerance Theory
1E)+*
),I
;$%&$<FO*G)
$3#1**
*;F-)#G<
$$
)));
&>&6&>H<);&CCH<
F;<GF+
()*)))G;@H$<
)*;0)*B"&CCC:
D&CCC<));BD)$%&$<#)
)*))))
1+
))+*
1*#1.
,))in general,
)##;)&$<I
)FGF*G
)##;
D*B8$%%A<)*)
)
;BDE$%%J:UB)$%%$<()F))
E)G)##;
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))*
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)))**)
5))
-)#19*+*5)
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)0B)$%$&<",E)*
.)*;*+<)*)5)
,E*;-B3
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#,)
)associated with())-1
))*;
<*);!
)<))
3,)7
*)!)7*+)
)+
))*;!*$%&A:3
$%&A:D$%&H:!$%&J:D$%&@:)&$<
!)))
))6
*())
()1))
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,.)*;.N%%@%%>:
8B8$%&%A<
(*)*)*)prejudicebased on
immutable traits. )&*),
)*)I)&>)
)*;##<
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#<1*$JT$>T*
$@
,)*)*)
)*5))*+,
)-))
;!*$%&A)$
A<)##;1D!<
);?,,<+
;S)$%$%<),
));?N$%CA<.))
)))
))*;D$%&@<
1,)-1*))
#1"*5)
5)!
**)*))
#2)!.)-
=)!*)
E)*)*1
*)
Authoritarianism Theory
1)*
1&CJ%)*The Authoritarian Personality
;#I,6D),"B&CJ%<*#;&C'&<
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;S)$%$%<
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*,
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A%
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7*(
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))*
))0
*)G;!D3B"$%$&AC:
$%$%<2)))
*))*F*GFG)
F*GE)66
;.B$%&&:6D$%$%<.
)
66
;68)$%%@:$%&@:").,,#0)BE$%$%<
A&
*E6)
6))*)6
6),:
,rearrange 6)
F#)*)**
GF--),-)))
*G;!$%$&<1)*
66)*
?
Egalitarianism Theory
#*egalitarian
75)*)I
;$%%C<*F5)O)G)
;$%%&<)F
5)G;@H&<L;$%%A<)FE)
5)))G;AH%<#)FE
))9)5)G;&CC'
H%<1**+*)
5)
,*)F5)G,
);<F5)G
*;D$%%H<3)5)
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(*#1*9
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)!
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$%&$<1)
+
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#1)5)
**
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added harm
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*5)I+)
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);3$%&A<"*E)
,);1
6<)*;
6:3$%&A:)&C'$<
,)*
E*))'$T*)*
*;)$%&J&&:
)BI*$%&@<
A@
-)**
:)5)*)7
##6*3
)7!1
6.)*7*()5)
*))
3)*7))
71,**
#121
[Table 1 near here]
Implications and directions for future research
#1)!
)7)7**
1,)9&<)
$<))
)1)
)2)alone
+*)
)*
#)
))5)*I
))5)&<itself
$<)*)
A'
)*;*&<#
1*.+**
))*
)5);?B
8&CC><
)*))*
))5);)&$<*
*);F)
G<)***)
)));*&<)5)
)))
),D)
*,))7+*
 
Individual differences and political alliances
#1*)
**)6)
-**)
)I+)!*)
+);3B8)0*$%&A<FG
(;8,B,E$%&J:!$%&><")
*);)BD$%$&<
;8)*0B8$%&&<#)*)
AC
)*))*));$%$&:L*B)
$%$$<+;"),0,.)B)
$%&C</-)
7;D,,",B,$%$&:
$%&C<
#*)mediate*)
*I++);)
+<)));6
))<)*
)0;8)0*),B3$%&%:3B8)0*$%&HH:
B$%&><*
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1),B8,$%&$:2DB3$%&@<*)
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B$%$$<.))
*)*#1
))*)
Politics and morality
##1*
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,(77*
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))*;$%&A<:
))**)
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B8)0*$%&A<#
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,**
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*,)
;*&<,
3)most );<*
least 41,)
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1*)*
**.*)
)5)*)
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*)E)**)
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)7)
)7))
)FG7
S*
0*):*
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()-)))(
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I
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2)-
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! -1
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ID-3
D,*
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)
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)
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*)*
"* -1
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3))5) `*)##
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3)
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16
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<)*
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... First, prominent scholarship ignores plausible alternative explanations and interpretive resources for their findings that would portray ostensibly Christian nationalist research subjects in a more benign light. Second, it leaves respondents at the low end of statistical scales intended to measure Christian nationalism undertheorized, despite evidence that these respondents might themselves exhibit intolerant or authoritarian tendencies under certain circumstances (Bryan 2023;Campbell et al. 2021;Costello 2023;Finkel et al. 2020;Krishnarajan 2023;Pinsof et al. 2023). This asymmetric scholarly approach ensures that evidence of pathology will only be found among research subjects "high in Christian nationalism." ...
... Gorski and Perry (2022) argue that white Christian nationalism is oriented around a central principle of "freedom for us, order for them" (7), but do not acknowledge the possibility that Lows operate from the same principle, only with the referents of "us" and "them" reversed. Recent research regarding mutual intolerance, selective support for democratic liberties, and left-wing authoritarianism renders such a possibility likely (e.g., Bryan 2023;Costello 2023;Krishnarajan 2023;Pinsof et al. 2023). ...
... Broad left-right belief profiles can be traced back to these essential traits, which may take the form of fundamental values or motivational needs (Federico and Malka 2023, 609-612). In contrast, social models posit that population-level belief structures are contingent on the formation of political group allegiances and rivalries as they occur in any given place or time (DellaPosta 2020;Mason 2018;Pinsof et al. 2023), with the apparent incoherence and mutability of belief structures resulting from the instability and contingency of political coalitions themselves. 4 Proponents have offered strong arguments that social models provide more plausible and parsimonious explanations than essentialist models for the dynamics of political belief systems that we actually observe (Lewis and Lewis 2022;Mason 2018;Pinsof et al. 2023). ...
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In 2001, John Levi Martin published a critique of authoritarianism scholarship, arguing that it was marred by fundamental biases of tautology, selective interpretation, and overtheorization of some research subjects but neglect of others. Drawing from this critique, I argue that Christian nationalism scholarship in sociology operates as a variant of authoritarianism research, exhibiting similar claims, strengths, and shortcomings. In a short span of time, the Christian nationalism research agenda has come to dominate the sociological study of religion and enjoyed a high profile in public discourse, presumably due to its relevance to matters of acute political concern. However, this literature interprets empirical results based on unverified assumptions of essentially authoritarian goals and motivations while ignoring plausible alternative explanations. It further neglects respondents who are low on Christian nationalism measures, despite evidence that these respondents play a role in religiopolitical conflict. The result is an essentialist account of Christian nationalism that is politically resonant but theoretically problematic. I propose that these issues can be addressed by a shift away from essentialist and toward social models of belief systems, which offer important advantages: greater consistency with current theories of political polarization, a stronger sociological element, and less susceptibility to researcher bias.
... This might be true in some cases. However, a significant body of evidence suggests that human beings are strongly biased towards beliefs they are motivated to spread to others (Butterworth et al., 2022;Hoffman & Yoeli, 2021;Melnikoff & Strohminger, 2020;Pinsof et al., 2023;Schwardmann & Weele, 2019;Williams, 2023a). That is, advocating for a belief often transforms us into true believers. ...
... Thus, what Charles Mills (2017, p. 18) calls the "white delusion of racial superiority" might be rooted in the fact that white populations were historically motivated to propagate beliefs and narratives that rationalised their privileged social position. More generally, propagandistic cognition seems to play a powerful role whenever intergroup conflict exists, including in polarised political contexts, where rival political coalitions often propagate, embrace, and identify with implausible beliefs and narratives that promote and justify their coalitional interests (Pinsof et al., 2023;Williams, 2023a). ...
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In "Why Delusions Matter", Lisa Bortolotti argues both that the concept of delusions should be extended to cover certain beliefs that bear no relationship to pathology, and that delusions deserve a more positive reputation. Drawing attention to the role of self-serving propaganda in prominent examples of non-clinical delusions, I argue that there is a tension between these parts of the project.
... Those associations reflect that claims and content depicting outgroup members as malevolent or incompetent can be viewed as useful material for partisans' goals on social media. For instance, sharing news derogating or bullying political opponents (e.g., anti-Biden fake news from Republicans' perspective) may be believed to persuade audiences to mobilize against outgroup elites or the establishment in general (Marie & Petersen, 2022;Petersen et al., 2023;Pinsof et al., 2023). Rumors demonizing the outgroup can also help reputational enhancement: signaling to potential political allies who one sees as one's rivals (Iyengar et al., 2012(Iyengar et al., , 2018, a personal motivation to aggress against the outgroup (Laustsen & Petersen, 2017;Mercier & Altay, 2022;Petersen & Laustsen, 2020b) or a dominant personality , which followers look for in times of conflict. ...
... Namely, it clarifies how it may be rational, at certain levels of analysis, to be biased. In environments where any individual's beliefs and behaviors will have a limited impact on political systems, it may be rational (i.e., sociofunctional) to express group-or identity-consistent beliefs even at the expense of accuracy or impartiality (Kahan, 2016;Pinsof et al., 2023). Where the costs of inaccuracy, incoherence, and partiality are limited, it can be "ecologically rational" and adaptive to exhibit perceptual and evaluative biases (Arkes et al., 2016). ...
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Despite decades of research, it has been difficult to resolve debates about the existence and nature of partisan bias—the tendency to evaluate information more positively when it supports, rather than challenges, one’s political views. Whether partisans display partisan biases, and whether any such biases reflect motivated reasoning, remains contested. We conducted four studies (total N = 4,010) in which participants who made unblinded evaluations of politically relevant science were compared to participants who made blinded evaluations of the same study. The blinded evaluations—judgments of a study’s quality given before knowing whether its results were politically congenial—served as impartial benchmarks against which unblinded participants’ potentially biased evaluations were compared. We also modeled the influence of partisans’ preferences and prior beliefs to test accounts of partisan judgment more stringently than past research. Across our studies, we found evidence of politically motivated reasoning, as unblinded partisans’ preferences and prior beliefs independently biased their evaluations. We contend that conceptual confusion between descriptive and normative (e.g., Bayesian) models of political cognition has impeded the resolution of long-standing theoretical debates, and we discuss how our results may help advance more integrative theorizing. We also consider how the blinding paradigm can help researchers address further theoretical disputes (e.g., whether liberals and conservatives are similarly biased), and we discuss the implications of our results for addressing partisan biases within and beyond social science.
... That is, Converse viewed ideology through an elitest framework in which knowledgeable political elites package together multiple issues and present them as part of a broader ideological platform to the masses (see also Zaller, 1992). Although elements of this approach are still found today (e.g., see Pinsof et al., 2023), it ignores the ways in which the public impacts politicians. Indeed, Lee's (2002) analysis of the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S. illustrates how the public influences political elites (rather than vice versa). ...
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Provides an overview of Converse's (1964) foundational study on belief systems in mass publics.
... Yet those in the Pro-Choice/ Pro-Mandate profile supported mandates that took away people's right to choose how they personally wanted to protect themselves during the pandemic. In this sense, our results speak to an alliance-based approach to belief systems in which voters simply support issues backed by political allies rather than developing coherent ideologies that are bound by an underlying logic or moral belief (e.g., see Pinsof et al., 2023). Thus, our results provide further evidence that the general public fails to display high levels of constraint across issues (e.g., Converse, 1964). ...
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Protestors recently repurposed the abortion rights’ mantra, “my body, my choice,” to oppose COVID-19 mandates. But do those who oppose public health mandates fully support the right to choose? We answer this question by using exploratory analyses to identify the unique response patterns underlying support for abortion and COVID-19 mandates in random samples from the United States (Study 1; N = 2,331) and New Zealand (Study 2; N = 33,310). Latent profile analyses revealed a small subgroup in both countries (12.6% and 3.4% of the respective samples) who opposed mandates. Yet contrary to the “my body, my choice” rhetoric seen at anti-mandate protests, they also opposed abortion. Across both studies, those in the Anti-Mandate profile tended to be more religious, conservative, and distrustful of institutions. In Study 2, they were also low on cognitive consistency and high on conspiracy belief. Finally, the Anti-Mandate profile was opposed to free speech critical of both the United States and religion (Study 1), high on sexual prejudice (both studies), unsupportive of progressive protests (but supportive of reactionary protests; Study 2), and likely to vote for conservative parties (both studies). These results reveal the mobilization potential of the anti-mandate movement, uncover important contradictions within its members, and illustrate the nuanced ways in which opposition to gender policies (i.e., reproductive rights) coalesce with reactionary protests.
... 3 These trade-offs between symbolic beliefs and the epistemic function of personal life experiences are thus significant in understanding the trajectory of political orientations across the life course. Starting with early adulthood, people begin roughly situating themselves in an alliance structure (Pinsof, Sears, and Haselton 2023), select into information consumption according to their political convictions (Williams 2023), and develop a basic political ontology about the political field (Martin 2015;Martin and Desmond 2010), all of which help mediating personal experiences to politics. Hence, we should observe no systematic change during adulthood as a function of one's life-course experiences. ...
... Individuals, however, do not only have truth-seeking motives when evaluating new information: their judgment and communication is also influenced by strategic, social goals (Kunda, 1990), such as signalling commitments to causes and fitting in moral communities (Kahan 2011(Kahan , 2016Williams, 2023;Tetlock, 2002;Van Bavel & Pereira, 2018), and trying to influence other people to increase their investment in causes that benefit the agent or the community (Fitouchi & Singh, 2022;Marie & Petersen, 2022;Kurzban et al., 2010;Pinsof, Sears & Haselton, 2023;Tetlock, 2002 In parallel, we expected potential sex differences in evaluations of research documenting sex-based hiring discrimination against women in academia to be largely explained by differences in MCGE. Indeed, Handley et al.'s (2015) observation that men tend to judge evidence of hiring discrimination against women less positively than women might be largely reducible to men being on average lower in MCGE than women due to differences in personal experiences. ...
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Exploring what modulates people's trust in evidence of hiring discrimination is crucial to the deployment of corrective policies. Here, we explore one powerful source of variation in such judgments: moral commitment to gender equality (MCGE), that is, perceptions of the issue as a moral imperative and as identity‐defining. Across seven experiments (N = 3579), we examined folk evaluations of scientific reports of hiring discrimination in academia. Participants who were more morally committed to gender equality were more likely to trust rigorous, experimental evidence of gender discrimination against women. This association between moral commitment and research evaluations was not reducible to prior beliefs, and largely explained a sex difference in people's evaluations on the issue. On a darker note, however, MCGE was associated with increased chances of fallaciously inferring discrimination against women from contradictory evidence. Overall, our results suggest that moral convictions amplify people's myside bias, bringing about both benefits and costs in the public consumption of science.
... anti-democratic tendencies, consistent with the theory of political conservatism as motivated social cognition 39 . Most of the findings contradict the notion that "both sides"-that is liberal-leftists and conservative-rightists-are equally to blame for the erosion of democratic norms in contemporary American politics [63][64][65][66][67] . This also means they cannot be explained purely in terms of generic, content-free principles of in-group identification or out-group hostility 16,32,35,38 . ...
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Based on theory and research in political psychology, we hypothesized that liberal-conservative differences in right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and political system justification would contribute to asymmetries in anti-democratic tendencies. These hypotheses were tested in a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ( N = 1557). Results revealed that conservatives were less supportive of political equality and legal rights and guarantees and more willing to defect from democratic “rules of the game” and vote for anti-democratic candidates, even after adjusting for political extremism. Mediational analyses suggested that conservatives’ anti-democratic tendencies were partially attributable to higher levels of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation. Conservatives also scored higher in political system justification, which was associated with support for free speech and mitigated anti-democratic tendencies. Democrats and Republicans who approved January 6, 2021, insurrectionists were more conservative and higher in right-wing authoritarianism than those who did not. Implications for social psychology and society are discussed.
Article
In social psychology these days it is commonplace to read or hear that liberal‐leftists and conservative‐rightists are every bit as “moral”; prejudiced and intolerant; susceptible to misinformation, “fake news,” and conspiratorial thinking; lax about upholding democratic standards; and prone to terrorism and political violence. Upon careful inspection, however, I conclude that every one of these claims is false or misleading. Liberal‐leftists in the United States and elsewhere are demonstrably more committed than conservative‐rightists to humanistic‐egalitarian values, deliberative reasoning, and adherence to democratic norms. In Western societies, acts of authoritarian aggression, hate crimes, and political violence are overwhelmingly more likely to come from the right than the left. As a witness to Nazi atrocities, Kurt Lewin deeply understood the role of historical, economic, and political forces in human lives and the interdependence between democracy and social science. He rejected moral relativism and what I call “both‐sideology” and offered a sophisticated critique of anti‐democratic tendencies. There are perfectly understandable reasons why people—especially academics and journalists—would be tempted to draw parallels between the left and right, and indeed there are many similarities as well as dissimilarities between liberal‐leftists and conservative‐rightists. However, the uncritical adoption of both‐sideology threatens liberal democracy itself and, with it, the only social science worth having. What we—as citizens and social scientists—need now is a renewal and revitalization of Lewin's critical‐emancipatory legacy before it is too late.
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Prior research using the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (MFQ) has established that political ideology is associated with self-reported reliance on specific moral foundations in moral judgments of acts. MFQ items do not specify the agents involved in the acts, however. By specifying agents in MFQ items we revealed blatant political double standards. Conservatives thought that the same moral foundation was more relevant if victims were agents that they like (i.e., corporations and other conservatives) but less relevant when the same agents were perpetrators. Liberals showed the same pattern for agents that they like (i.e., news media and other liberals). A UK sample showed much weaker political double standards with respect to corporations and news media, consistent with feelings about corporations and news media being much less politicized in the UK than in the US. We discuss the implications for moral foundations theory.
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As American politics descends into a battle of anger and hostility between two groups called “left” and “right,” people increasingly ask: What is the essential difference between these two ideological groups? In The Myth of Left and Right, Hyrum Lewis and Verlan Lewis provide the surprising answer: nothing. As the authors argue, there is no enduring philosophy, disposition, or essence uniting the various positions associated with the liberal and conservative ideologies of today. Far from being an eternal dividing line of American politics, the political spectrum came to the United States in the 1920s and, since then, left and right have evolved in so many unpredictable and even contradictory ways that there is currently nothing other than tribal loyalty holding together the many disparate positions that fly under the banners of “liberal” and “conservative.” Powerfully argued and cutting against the grain of most scholarship on polarization in America, this book shows why the idea that the political spectrum measures deeply held worldviews is the central political myth of our time and a major cause of the confusion and vitriol that characterize public discourse.
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Americans venerate rags-to-riches stories. Here we show that people view those who became rich more positively than those born rich, and expect the Became Rich to be more sympathetic toward social welfare (Studies 1a-b). However, we also find that these intuitions are misguided. Surveys of wealthy individuals (Studies 2a-b) reveal that, compared to the Born Rich, the Became Rich perceive improving one's socioeconomic conditions as less difficult, which, in turn, predicts less empathy for the poor, less perceived sacrifices by the poor, more internal attributions for poverty, and less support for redistribution. Corroborating this, imagining having experienced upward mobility (vs. beginning and staying at the top) causes people to view such mobility as less difficult, reducing empathy and support for those failing to move up (Study 3). These findings suggest that becoming rich may shift views about the poor in ways that run counter to common intuitions and cultural assumptions.
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Research on personality and political preferences generally assumes unidirectional causal influence of the former on the latter. However, there are reasons to believe that citizens might adopt what they perceive as politically congruent psychological attributes, or at least be motivated to view themselves as having these attributes. We test this hypothesis in a series of studies. Results of preregistered panel analyses in three countries suggest reciprocal causal influences between self-reported personality traits and political preferences. In two two-wave survey experiments, a subtle political prime at the beginning of a survey resulted in self-reported personality traits that were more aligned with political preferences gauged in a previous assessment. We discuss how concurrent assessment within the context of a political survey might overestimate the causal influence of personality traits on political preferences and how political polarization might be exacerbated by political opponents adopting different personality characteristics or self-perceptions thereof.
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Authoritarianism has been the subject of scientific inquiry for nearly a century, yet the vast majority of authoritarianism research has focused on right-wing authoritarianism. In the present studies, we investigate the nature, structure, and nomological network of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), a construct famously known as “the Loch Ness Monster” of political psychology. We iteratively construct a measure and data-driven conceptualization of LWA across six samples (N = 7,258) and conduct quantitative tests of LWA’s relations with more than 60 authoritarianism-related variables. We find that LWA, right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation reflect a shared constellation of personality traits, cognitive features, beliefs, and motivational values that might be considered the “heart” of authoritarianism. Relative to right-wing authoritarians, left-wing authoritarians were lower in dogmatism and cognitive rigidity, higher in negative emotionality, and expressed stronger support for a political system with substantial centralized state control. Our results also indicate that LWA powerfully predicts behavioral aggression and is strongly correlated with participation in political violence. We conclude that a movement away from exclusively right-wing conceptualizations of authoritarianism may be required to illuminate authoritarianism’s central features, conceptual breadth, and psychological appeal. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
We surveyed Americans regarding their beliefs about gender discrimination over the past several decades. Men and women agreed that women faced much more discrimination than men in the past, and they agreed that the discrimination gap between men and women has narrowed in recent years. However, men perceived the gap as narrower than women did at all time periods, and reported that there is little difference today in the amount of gender discrimination women and men face. Political ideology moderated these beliefs such that conservative men were most likely to report that anti-Man bias now equals or exceeds anti-Woman bias. Similar to recent research on beliefs about racism, these findings suggest that groups which differ historically in status and power exhibit perceptual differences regarding the changing nature of discrimination.
Article
Drawing on a unique battery of questions fielded on the 2018 CCES and in two separate surveys—one in 2019 and the other during the 2020 election—we study the extent to which Americans feel animus toward communities that are geographically distinct from their own and whether these feelings explain Americans’ attitudes toward the two major political parties and self-reported vote choice. We report results on how place-based resentment predicted vote choice in the 2018 midterm and 2020 general elections and how those feelings relate to other widely studied facets of political behavior such as partisanship and racial resentment. Rural resentment is a powerful predictor of vote choice in both election years examined.