Conservatives are happier than liberals, but why? Political ideology, personality, and life satisfaction

Schlenker, Barry R.; Chambers, John R.; Le, Bonnie M.

doi:10.1016/j.jrp.2011.12.009

Cited by 181 publications

(226 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…That is, we included assessments of both social and economic dimensions of ideology (36) in studies 2 and 3, and analysis of both dimensions mirrored the results for the global ideology measure in those studies (see Table 1 for intercorrelations). Importantly, this relationship was shown to stem from differences in freewill beliefs, a finding consistent with work on the attributional proclivities of conservatives and liberals (9). Moreover, this association held when we experimentally induced the theory that freewill is beneficial to self-control and reversed when we experimentally induced the theory that freewill is detrimental to self-control.…”

Section: Summary Of Findingssupporting

confidence: 78%

“…Specifically, conservatives tend to attribute causality to internal or dispositional factors (e.g., personal effort and control), whereas liberals tend to attribute causality to external factors (e.g., systemic or sociocultural forces) (9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Given that conservatives are more likely than liberals to make internal attributions for their actions, it follows that conservatives should also more strongly endorse the belief in freewill than should liberals.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The self-control consequences of political ideology

Clarkson

Chambers

Hirt

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology and selfcontrol is mediated by differences in the extent to which belief in freewill is endorsed, is independent of task performance or motivation, and is reversed when freewill is perceived to impede (rather than enhance) self-control. Collectively, these findings offer insight into the self-control consequences of political ideology by detailing conditions under which conservatives and liberals are better suited to engage in self-control and outlining the role of freewill beliefs in determining these conditions. freewill beliefs | self-control | political ideology | individual differences P olitical ideologies loosely represent a shared set of beliefs that define both a specific social order and the means to attain it (1). These ideologies are often categorized into two broad groups-those who endorse traditional values and the status quo (conservatives) and those who endorse egalitarian ideals and progressive change (liberals) (2). Although research demonstrates the various consequences of these distinct ideologies (3), of primary interest to the present research is the unexplored possibility for selfcontrol differences between conservatives and liberals. In particular, we hypothesize that conservatives will demonstrate greater selfcontrol than liberals.This proposition-although untested-is not without indirect support. Kemmelmeier et al. (4) demonstrate that conservative students earn higher grades in college than liberals (controlling for general intellect). The authors interpret this finding as a function of social dominance, arguing that doing well in these disciplines promotes the existing social hierarchy that conservatives seek to maintain. However, a complementary position is that conservatives more strongly embrace the belief that they are responsible for their actions (i.e., freewill beliefs) (5-8). For instance, it could be that conservatives believe they have greater control over their performance and thus expend greater selfcontrol in their academic pursuits.The possibility that conservatives and liberals differ in their freewill beliefs would be consistent with the attributional proclivities of conservatives and liberals. Specifically, conservatives tend to attribute causality to internal or dispositional factors (e.g., personal effort and control), whereas liberals tend to attribute causality to external factors (e.g., systemic or sociocultural forces) (9-13). Given that conservatives are more likely than liberals to make internal attributions for their actions, it follows that conservatives should also more strongly endorse the belief in freewill than should liberals. Indeed, believing outcomes are dete...

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Section: Summary Of Findingssupporting

confidence: 78%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The self-control consequences of political ideology

Clarkson

Chambers

Hirt

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

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“…As a consequence, people who differ in their abstract ideological beliefs will also tend to differ in their lower-level social-cognitive processes, such as sensitivity to basic emotions (Helzer and Pizarro 2011;Hodson and Costello 2007;Inbar et al 2009a, b;Terrizzi et al 2010;Tybur et al 2010) and accuracy in dealing with novel and unexpected information (Amodio et al, 2007). Additional studies have shown that ideologies can also have personal consequences, affecting relational outcomes and social functioning (for review, see Schlenker, Chambers, & Le, 2012).…”

Section: Ideology Sdo and Social Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceiving Others’ Feelings

Sherman

Lerner

Renshon

et al. 2015

Social Psychological and Personality Science

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Recent research has explored the relationship between social hierarchy and empathic accuracy—the ability to accurately infer other people’s mental states. In the current research, we tested the hypothesis that, regardless of one’s personal level of status and power, simply believing that social inequality is natural and morally acceptable (e.g., endorsing social dominance orientation, or SDO) would be negatively associated with empathic accuracy. In a sample of managers, a group for whom empathic accuracy is a valuable skill, empathic accuracy was lower for managers who possessed structural power and also for managers who endorsed social dominance, regardless of their structural power. Moreover, men were less empathically accurate than women, a relationship that may be explained by men’s higher SDO and greater structural power. These findings suggest that for empathic abilities, it matters just as much what you think about social hierarchies as it does where you stand within them.

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“…Más aún, la BJW contribuye a dar estabilidad al entorno, preservando a los individuos del riesgo que éste supone para las personas autoritarias. En esta línea, se han identificado asociaciones entre la BJW y el autoposicionamiento ideológico-político (en adelante PI), particularmente con el extremo de derechas, debido al acuerdo con las formas políticas tradicionales que ofrecen un marco prescriptivo acerca de lo correcto y lo incorrecto (Connors & Heaven, 1987;Rubin & Peplau, 1975;Schlenker, Chambers & Le, 2012;Smith & Green, 1984).…”

Section: Elunclassified

“…Para ello se analizaron las relaciones entre las puntuaciones en la escala y RWA, SDO y PI, dado que distintos estudios han puesto de manifiesto la existencia de correlaciones positivas entre la BJW y el autoritarismo de derechas (Connors & Heaven, 1987;Dalbert & Yamuchi, 2003;Lambert et al, 1998;Lambert et al, 1999;Moore, 2008;Rubin & Peplau, 1975, 1973, la orientación a la dominancia social (Bizer, Hart & Jekogian, 2012) y el autoposicionamiento ideológico político de derechas (Connors & Heaven, 1987;Rubin & Peplau, 1975;Schlenker et al, 2012;Smith & Green, 1984) (ver Tabla 2).…”

Section: Validez De Criteriounclassified

Creencia global en un mundo justo: Validación de la Escala de Lipkus en estudiantes universitarios de la ciudad de Buenos Aires

Barreiro

Prado-Gascó

2014

Interd

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El objetivo principal del trabajo que se informa fue adaptar y validar la Escala de Creencia Global en un Mundo Justo (Global Belief in a Just World Scale -GBJWS) de Lipkus (1991) en una muestra de estudiantes universitarios de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires (Argentina). Se administró un instrumento de evaluación a 328 estudiantes con edades entre 18 y 40 años (M = 24.1; DT = 3.88), de los cuales el 36.6% eran hombres (n = 120) y el 63.4% mujeres (n = 208). Los resultados obtenidos sugieren adecuadas propiedades psicométricas de la escala GBJWS en la muestra con la que se trabajó. Los análisis realizados confirman la unidimensionalidad de la escala. Asimismo, las puntuaciones en la GBJWS se relacionan positivamente con el autoritarismo del ala de derecha (Right Wing Authoritarianism -RWA), la orientación a la dominancia social (Social Dominance Orientation -SDO) y negativamente con el autoposicionamiento ideológico político. Se considera que el estudio realizado abre una línea de investigación que permite la indagación sistemática de la creencia global en un mundo justo en contextos hispanoparlantes a partir de la construcción de una medida confiable y válida para el contexto argentino. Se recomienda la realización de futuros estudios que utilicen la GBJW en poblaciones diferentes a la estudiada, para así avanzar con respecto a la generalización y representatividad de los resultados presentados en este trabajo.

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Conservatives are happier than liberals, but why? Political ideology, personality, and life satisfaction

Cited by 181 publications

References 36 publications

The self-control consequences of political ideology

The self-control consequences of political ideology

Perceiving Others’ Feelings

Creencia global en un mundo justo: Validación de la Escala de Lipkus en estudiantes universitarios de la ciudad de Buenos Aires

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