Are Needs to Manage Uncertainty and Threat Associated With Political Conservatism or Ideological Extremity?

Abstract

Three studies are conducted to assess the uncertainty- threat model of political conservatism, which posits that psychological needs to manage uncertainty and threat are associated with political orientation. Results from structural equation models provide consistent support for the hypothesis that uncertainty avoidance (e.g., need for order, intolerance of ambiguity, and lack of openness to experience) and threat management (e.g., death anxiety, system threat, and perceptions of a dangerous world) each contributes independently to conservatism (vs. liberalism). No support is obtained for alternative models, which predict that uncertainty and threat management are associated with ideological extremism or extreme forms of conservatism only. Study 3 also reveals that resistance to change fully mediates the association between uncertainty avoidance and conservatism, whereas opposition to equality partially mediates the association between threat and conservatism. Implications for understanding the epistemic and existential bases of political orientation are discussed.

Implicit race attitudes predict trustworthiness judgments and economic trust decisions

“…More importantly, the influence of implicit race attitude on evaluations of trustworthiness was independent of that of explicit race attitude. We conducted a stepwise regression analysis of the race disparity in ratings to objectively assess the relative contributions of implicit race attitude (IAT D score), four standard measures of explicit race attitude (27)(28)(29), a measure of political leaning (30), and participant race ( Table 1). In the final model, IAT score remained a significant independent predictor of race disparity in trustworthiness ratings, accounting for a portion of the variance that standard measures of explicit race attitude, political leaning, and participant race did not.…”

“…All these questionnaires were administered via computer in random order (question order within each scale was also randomized). In addition, we collected demographic measures, contact measures, participants' liberal/conservative affiliation (30), and a final questionnaire assessing participants' knowledge and beliefs about the study. These last surveys were administered on paper.…”

“Elective Affinities”: On the Psychological Bases of Left–Right Differences

“…At the same time, there are inherent limitations of a meta-analytic approach, and these were addressed in a follow-up article by Jost et al (2007). For one thing, the individual data sets included in the metaanalysis did not contain both uncertainty and threat management variables, so it was not possible to determine whether they contribute independently and equivalently to political orientation or if one type of variable is more important than the other.…”

“…To address these theoretical and methodological limitations of previous research, Jost et al (2007) conducted three studies using structural equation methods in Texas, Massachusetts, and New York. Specifically, they created second-order latent variables of uncertainty avoidance and threat management based on multiple scale indicators of each.…”

“…To estimate threat management, we administered items from Duckitt's (2001) perceptions of a dangerous world scale, along with other items gauging feelings of system threat (e.g., likelihood of economic depression, terrorist attacks). In this way, Jost et al (2007) were able to investigate the simultaneous effects of needs to manage uncertainty and threat on both liberalism-conservatism and ideological extremity, adjusting for the effects of the other.…”