Dual Evolutionary Foundations of Political Ideology Predict Divergent Responses to COVID-19

Abstract

A popular view, supported by several studies, is that liberals are more concerned than conservatives about COVID-19. This is puzzling given the strong pandemic responses from some conservative nations, and the well-established link between conservatism and threat-sensitivity. We argue a resolution is provided by the dual evolutionary foundations of political ideology, which track trade-offs between: (1) threat-driven group conformity (social conservatism or right-wing authoritarianism [RWA]) vs. individual autonomy (social progressivism); and (2) a competitive motivation for hierarchy (economic conservatism or social dominance orientation [SDO]) vs. cooperation (economic progressivism). Using longitudinal data from a UK sample (n=433), we show that social (RWA), but not economic (SDO), conservatism significantly increased following the pandemic, and self-reported worry about the pandemic predicts this effect. Moreover, both social conservatives and economic progressives display strong responses to COVID-19, but for different reasons. While social conservatives generally display more worried and conformist/norm-enforcing responses, economic progressives display more cooperative, empathic responses and only worried or conformist/norm-enforcing responses related to empathy. These findings provide an explanation for apparently inconsistent results of prior work, support the dual foundations model of political ideology, and offer insight into divergent motives across the ideological landscape that may be useful for managing pandemic response.

Politics of COVID-19 vaccine mandates: Left/right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and libertarianism

“…This study advances prior research by investigating how four ideological factors–left-wing authoritarianism (LWA), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO), and libertarianism–shape attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine policies. Previous research has shown that ideological factors such as SDO and RWA predict COVID-19 risk perceptions, adherence to public health recommendations, and vaccine hesitancy ( Bilewicz & Soral, 2021 ; Choma, Hodson, Sumantry, Hanoch, & Gummerum, 2021 ; Fischer, Chaudhuri, & Atkinson, 2020 ). This research extends this line of scholarship and shows that ideologies also underscore the support for vaccine mandates and the punishment of unvaccinated individuals, which are heavily debated topics regarding the pandemic.…”

The Advent of the COVID-19 Epidemic Did Not Affect Americans’ Endorsement of Moral Foundations

“…A study in Poland ( Golec de Zavala et al, 2020 ) found small increases ( d av around 0.15) in right-wing authoritarianism (conformity) and sexual prejudice (conformity), and no changes in social-dominance orientation (cooperation) or political conservatism (ambiguous). A study in the United Kingdom ( Fischer et al, 2020 ) found a very small increase ( d av around 0.05) in right-wing authoritarianism (conformity) and no change in social-dominance orientation (cooperation). The increase in right-wing authoritarianism was only very weakly related to the perceived threat from the pandemic (explaining only 5% of the variance) and not related to actual exposure.…”

“…Note that although no prior experimental or longitudinal work has examined the effect of disease threat on moral foundations, there are several such studies of how various related constructs (e.g., social conservatism, political conservatism, right-wing authoritarianism, social-dominance orientation, gender stereotypes, and sexual prejudice) were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic ( Fischer et al, 2020 ; Golec de Zavala et al, 2020 ; Karwowski et al, 2020 ; Rosenfeld and Tomiyama, 2021 ) and the 2014 Ebola outbreak in the United States ( Beall et al, 2016 ; Inbar et al, 2016 ; Schaller et al, 2017 ; Tiokhin and Hruschka, 2017 ). These studies have yielded a mix of small effects and null effects.…”

The advent of the COVID-19 epidemic did not affect Americans’ endorsement of moral foundations

“…A study in Poland found small increases in right-wing authoritarianism and sexual prejudice (d av around 0.15) and no changes in social-dominance orientation or political conservatism (Golec de Zavala et al, 2020). A study in the United Kingdom found a very small increase in right-wing authoritarianism (d av around 0.05) and no change in social-dominance orientation (Fischer et al, 2020). Moreover, the increase in right-wing authoritarianism was only very weakly related to the perceived threat from the pandemic (explaining only 5 percent of the variance) and not related to actual exposure.…”