Political Psychology PDF

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AgileWhite

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University of Florida

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political psychology political ideologies political orientations

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This document covers various topics related to political psychology, from the distinction between ideology and orientation to different political orientations and preferences.

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Political Religious Moral (individual) Scientific Aesthetic; cool-factor Distinction between ideology and orientation is distinct in polisci vs. psyc...

Political Religious Moral (individual) Scientific Aesthetic; cool-factor Distinction between ideology and orientation is distinct in polisci vs. psych Ideology - broader concept about mental organization Schema Lens; “who you areˮ More stable Orientation - where you might fall on the political scale More open to changing More behavioral; “what you doˮ Without a political ideology, orientation can jump around Lecture 10/3 Explicit Ideology Left-wing/Liberalism Social Change Equality/egalitarian Lower on RWA and SDO Right-wing authoritarianism Social Dominance Orientation Openness Political Psychology 26 Tolerance of ambiguity and cognitive ambiguity (gray areas) Think through things for a long time, keep consulting Time-consuming Lower system justification Lower mortality salience Lower threat perceptions Less need to reduce uncertainty & threat Right-wing/Conservatism Tradition Hierarchy Social Darwinism Higher on RWA and SDO Conscientiousness Higher need for certainty and cognitive closure Come to a certain decision and deal w/ consequences Higher system justification Defending/upholding the system Higher mortality salience Higher threat perceptions More need to reduce uncertainty & threat Mortality Salience System Justification Lifestyle Liberals prefer Atheism Political Psychology 27 Art: Poetry, jazz, street artists foreign films erotica Recreational drugs, asian food Big cities, foreign travel Openness, tolerance, sensation seeking Harder to get to leave during a hurricane Conservatives prefer Religiosity/religious people/prayer/Christianity Greek life, alcohol SUVs, brand logos High school Fishing, sports, TV, newspaper subscriptions Family  Marriage, idea of having kids, their childhood, their father Conventionalism, tradition, adherence to social norms More likely to leave during a hurricane - more likely to heed warnings, listen to authority, safety concerns Attitudes Liberals prefer: Remedying social injustices Gay marriage Welfare Feminism Political Psychology 28 Affirmative Action Universal Health Care Environmentalism Social change and egalitarianism Conservatives prefer: Big corporations Rich/wealth Women in home God Government Politicians Police Military U.S. Flag Most Americans Their home state System justification, support of status quote Once something exists for a while, it is something that becomes the norm/tradition and something for conservatives to defend Note: this is pre-Trump data Implicit Ideology Liberal Preferences: Political Psychology 29 Lower status groups Marginalized groups Conservative Preferences: Higher status groups Majority/power-holding groups Demographically, those who fall into these marginalized/majority groups tend to align with the orientation that prefers their group (all other factors considered) Where Does Ideology Come From?  Conventional view - learned from parents/peers; socialization growing up Explicitly - direct teachings of values and opinions Implicitly - picked up over time  Nature view - inherited from parents Genetic component Twin studies, political ID highly heritable 50% variance explained by genetic factors) Twins have more in common w birth parents politically than adoptive Ideology as temperament or personality We tend to think of our political ideology as being chosen based on “studying the issuesˮ (following parents/friends/partners etc.) May be that we have genetically based personality styles that leads us in different stances Political Psychology 30 Pre-K temperament to later political ideology Developmental antecedents of political ideology interviews w/ 708 children and family members at 1 mo and follow-up at 18 Parenting attitudes: authoritarian, egalitarian, etc. Authoritarian attitudes at 1 mo → more conservative views at 18 Egalitarian attitudes at 1 mo → more liberal views at 18 Small correlation (rs  0.21, 0.19 Parentsʼ Political Ideology Predicts How Their Children Punish Proxy for value systems Child tore up others childʼs paper → do we punish them by not letting them watch fun video? Parental conservatism was associated w/ childrenʼs punishment of out-group members Letting in-group behavior slide; teach out-group a lesson Parental liberalism was associated w/ childrenʼs punishment of in-group members In-group needs to know what is right or wrong Consider approach to in-group and out-group politicians misbehaving…  Conservative shift Threatening events such as 9/11 Mortality salience manipulation Political Psychology 31 Having kids (threat as mediator) Worrying about kidsʼ safety  Liberal shift Foreign travel → study abroad Students who go to study abroad are more likely to be liberal as a starting point… Sensation seeking Increasing amounts of education Did not used to be the case; ~post-2000 Perspective-taking jobs (judges, academics, educators) Have to consider what other people are thinking while working Require tolerance of ambiguity Moral Foundations Hypothesis Anxious Generation Shared human morality is based on a number of core constructs Morality has different flavors Liberals and conservatives have different “taste receptorsˮ for morality Morality Pillars  Care/harm  Fairness/cheating  Loyalty/betrayal  Authority/subversion  Sanctity/degradation Cleanliness Bodily sanctity Political Psychology 32 Disgust scale  Liberty/oppression → Libertarians Reliance on these constructs differs by political orientation We hold what we view moral/immoral differently than other views Liberals are hyperfocused on issues of care/harm and fairness/cheating when it comes to moral issues Conservatives have a thicker taste pallet; also find these things immoral in tandem to other issues YourMorals Morality Quiz/Test your Morals, Values & Ethics http://yourmorals.org Whether or not someone cared for someone weak or vulnerable - care Whether or not some people were treated differently from others - fairness Whether or not someone showed a lack of loyalty (betrayal) - loyalty E.g., refusing to wear school colors Whether or not someone conformed to the traditions of society - authority Whether or not someone did something disgusting E.g., got surgery to deviate tongue, intravenous drugs, tattoos, etc. Political Psychology 33 The Moral Foundations Hypothesis Does Not Replicate Well in Black Sa mples The relationship between authority and purity foundations does not correlate as strongly with political orientation for Black people as it does White people Smith et al 2019.pdf Do people like others who are morally consistent? Does your perception of someoneʼs actions depend on your politics/your view of theirs How do people view others? Based on moral foundations How do people view Reemolapʼs actions based on their moral foundations Takeaways:  CF transgressions lead to more dislike overall than LAP transgressions  Even conservative participants dislike the CF transgressor more than LAP  When Reemolap makes CF transgressions, liberals dislike him more than do conservatives He has done the exact same thing  When Reemolap make LAP transgressions, conservatices dislike him more than do liberals Lecture 10/8 Note Issues) Presented data will Treat gender in a binary way Treat race & ethnicity as real and meaningful differences Political Psychology 34 Ignore most within-race differences Focus overmuch on importance of White people Treat Hispanic/Latino as Asian American as monoliths Party Demographics Gender differences Men → more likely to vote/identify/lean Republican Women → more likely to vote/identify/lean Democrat Assumptions following this gap do not make much sense 6% difference for men; 7% difference for women) Variation by gender, marital status, and sexual orientation Underlying variables that explain these differences Biggest disparity is LGBTQ men/women heavily leaning Democrat Consider voting rates Race/Ethnicity Generally White voters more GOP aligned; majority of non-white voters favor Democratic Party ‘08 election brought White voters closer together cross-party Spikes in trends for Asian American voters → significantly around 2020 (covid) leaning Democratic More variable pattern Less participants in these samples Differences by country of origin Educational Attainment and Voting HS or less Some college Political Psychology 35 4-year college → lean Democratic Was not the case in the past Flipped Postgraduate experience → lean Democratic Overall, more educational attainment correlated w/ Democratic party affiliation This partisanship in educational attainment is widest amongst White voters No real interaction for Hispanic voters…nearly identical Black voters with a college degree lean away from the Democratic party over time (slightly) Gap decreasing among Black voters w college degree Gap increasing amongst White voters w lowest educational attainment Gender & Education Differences Women w/ college degree → 35 pt difference for Dem Biggest difference in party affiliation is amongst women who have graduated from 4 yr program Men w/ no college → 12 pt difference Rep (White) men with lower educational attainment have been moving to GOP since 2008 (White) men w/ higher educational attainment have been slowly shifting to Democratic party over past 25 yrs Age 1839 strongest association with Democratic party Republican party strongest association/shift for those 60 19 difference for those 80 Obviously highly dependent on other demographic data too Religion Political Psychology 36 Protestant  Rep lean Catholic  Rep lean Overtime Strong Dem lean during JFK LDS  strong Rep lean Smaller sample size Jewish  Dem lean Muslim  Dem lean Smaller sample size Unaffiliated  Dem lean When broken up by race/ethnicity, greater differences in these trends Significant difference for Black protestants, Hispanic protestants, Hispanic Catholics Urban/Rural Divide Urban  Dem lean Suburbs  Middle ground Rural  Rep lean Has become more partisan R over time, used to be more mixed Differences in the economy Esp. true for rural White More densely populated states lean more Dem FL is most urban state that voted for Trump in 2016 Vermont has low urbanization index & voted for Clinton Voter Turnout Women more likely to vote 23% throughout time (save for 1980 Political Psychology 37 Midterm elections have way fewer voters overall Young people vote at lower rates than older people Why campaigns are more targeted towards older populations Race/Ethnicity:  Non-Hispanic White  Non-Hispanic Black Black people voted at higher rates than White people in ‘08 & 2012  Non-Hispanic Other  Hispanics Lecture 10/15 Voter turnout by race/ethnicity Reminder! Language of survey & (unknown) impacts on survey quality Most surveys are in English only Cities, coastlines, rivers → places where people and ideas mix tend to be more liberal Change-oriented, novelty perspective Blue belt/arc in the south DC  Louisiana) Most of these states donʼt even poll bc it is known they will be Red There is a blue line down Mississippi River Corresponds to percentage of Black people within these rural counties Also, previous coastline hundred million years ago Map of cotton production in 1859; Black crescent Black people & black earth) Political Psychology 38 The Warmth of Other Suns  Isabel Wilkerson The Devil You Know  Charles M. Blow Reverse migration argument Reverting certain Southern states to majority Black states and obtaining senate power Left-right Distinction Composed of two elements (e.g., Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009 Advocating vs. resisting social change → where you lie on political scale As opposed to tradition Rejecting vs. accepting inequality These are the main elements; the rest are rationalizations Single left/right item does most of the work when studying this Most people donʼt know/donʼt care about policy when asked Not a lot of evidence for the “economic vs. socialˮ liberal/conservative distinction These factors tend to align One-dimensional model of political orientation Predicts behavior fairly well Does not, on its own, mean that it is “realˮ Not how the world is organized Doesnʼt mean that it is the best way of operationalizing political ideology However, it is simple and efficient Political Psychology 39 Obviously reduces people to these numbers on a line; people are much more dimensional Does not mean that it operationalizes ideology equally well for all people Mostly works for White people & those who are politically engaged Hakeem Jefferson Correlation of 0.66 about what you say about your ideology (liberal/conservative) and voting behavior (dem/rep) if you are White These factors have become synonymous throughout history However, for Black ppl, almost no correlation Slightly liberal republicans; slightly conservative democrats More likely to think about themselves as aligned with a certain party first, and then with an orientation (lib/con) Different perspectives/usages of liberal and conservative dimensions 90% of African Americans are Democrats; however 47% liberal 44% conservative Disgust Sensitivity Inbar, Pizarro, Iyer, & Haidt, 2012 Disgust sensitivity is related to political orientation More sensitivity to disgust for Conservatives Related to voting behavior → more DS, less likely to vote for Obama Negativity Bias Conservatives see world as more threatening, negative place Hibbing, Smith, & Alford 2014 Genetic piece to political orientation Twin studies show small significant relationship (r~0.20.4 on issues (e.g., support for the death penalty and voting behavior Political Psychology 40 Socialization piece Parentsʼ political orientation also explains small but significant evidence Authorsʼ approach is to understand something Flanker task Identifying italic letters Negative stimuli appear on side of screen Overall, conservatives are slower to respond and make more errors when threatening pictures flank the central stimuli More distracting to political conservatives → more threatening Physical orientation towards safety; stronger danger alarm systems Then when party offers safety measures, more aligned and make more sense with these attentional and physiological responses Eye Tracking Task Some stimuli that are scary/gross some that are sweet Conservatives tend to spend more time looking at negative stimuli (track negatives) Focus on danger based on eye tracking pattern Monitor negative stimuli Also rate negative stimuli more negatively Liberal participants are more likely to rank them more closely to each other More random patterns of eye gaze Attentional biases are deeply ingrained Dot Probe Task Press spacebar when you see dot pop up Threatening and non-threatening image Political Psychology 41 Where are you looking/where is your attention based on how fast you press the dot Liberals are unaffected by the location of the dot (positive/negative image) Conservatives are slower at positive and faster at negative More attentional resources on negative image If you drift attention to snake for a second, can miss dot Time differences in milliseconds Liberals tend to be unfocused on either and are just waiting for the dot Safety concerns; monitoring for danger At an ideological level…liberals and conservatives experience the world differently Whether or not individuals should pay more/less attention to threat Learning - Attitude Formation Learning about new information & developing attitudes Fazio & Shook 2009  Bean Fest Participants learn about all different types of beans; learning the logic Choose beans Patterns that can earn them points (or lose points) Liberals and conservatives interact w/ the game differently Liberals try many more beans than conservatives Higher risk/reward dynamic Trying new things Conservatives find some good beans and stay with them Sticking with safe option Losing points as an aversive experience that is to be avoided Political Psychology 42 Afterwards, conservatives are better than liberals at remembering which beans were negative ALSO conservatives misremember many good beans as being negative Startle Reflex Conservatives have a larger startle reflect to unpleasant sounds Oxley et al., 2008 Blink more when they hear negative tones in headphones Jump/jarr/blink Liberals do not interact w/ negative stimulus as much; or can view conservatives as adding too much negativity Physiological response Certain biological tendencies respond to an environment that push individuals a certain way Political Psychology 43

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