Defensive Zeal and the Uncertain Self: What Makes You So Sure?

McGregor, Ian; Marigold, Denise C.

doi:10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.838

Cited by 192 publications

(208 citation statements)

References 83 publications

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“…These findings challenge the common social psychological assumption that stronger psychological needs to manage uncertainty and threat motivate individuals to show more extreme support for any ideology or social movement (whether left, right, or center) to which they subscribe or are otherwise frequently exposed (e.g., see Anson et al, 2009;Castano et al, 2011;Greenberg et al, 1986Greenberg et al, , 1990Greenberg & Jonas, 2003;Heine et al, 2006;Hogg, 2005Hogg, , 2007McGregor & Marigold, 2003;McGregor, Zanna, Holmes, & Spencer, 2001;McGregor et al, 2010;Proulx et al, 2012). Indeed, we found that the same set of epistemic, existential, and relational needs exerted opposite effects on system-justifying and system-challenging ideological outcomes (i.e., support for the Tea Party vs.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 50%

Not All Ideologies are Created Equal: Epistemic, Existential, and Relational Needs Predict System-Justifying Attitudes

Hennes¹,

Nam²,

Stern³

et al. 2012

Social Cognition

183

229

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Whereas most social psychological perspectives assume that needs to manage uncertainty, existential anxiety, and social cohesion should motivate any form of ideological zeal, System Justification Theory predicts that these needs are positively associated with the endorsement of system-justifying beliefs, opinions, and values but negatively associated with the endorsement of system-challenging ideological outcomes. For the first time we test a full theoretical model in which system justification mediates the effects of individual differences in epistemic, existential, and relational needs on attitudes toward public policy issues and social movements. Specifically, we conducted a national survey of 182 americans and found that, as hypothesized, lower need for cognition, greater death anxiety, and a stronger desire to share reality each contributed significantly and independently to economic system justification, which, in turn, contributed to support for the Tea Party (a movement aimed at restoring america's "traditional values") and opposition to Occupy Wall Street (a movement seeking to reduce social and economic inequality and minimize corporate influence on government). economic system justification also mediated the effects of these needs on the endorsement of status quo positions with respect to health care, immigration, global climate change, and the "Ground Zero mosque." These findings suggest that epistemic, existential, and relational needs lead disproportionately to support for system-justifying, rather than system-challenging, policies and movements.[A]s a prominent ultra-conservative radio commentator observed recently: "There is nothing wrong with our American system. It is as good as it ever was, but we must

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 50%

Not All Ideologies are Created Equal: Epistemic, Existential, and Relational Needs Predict System-Justifying Attitudes

Hennes¹,

Nam²,

Stern³

et al. 2012

Social Cognition

183

229

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Two recent experiments (McGregor &Marigold, 2003, andMcGregor, Nail, Marigold, &Kang, 2005) indicate that uncertainty threat can interact with unstable self-esteem to cause compensatory conviction. If self-esteem instability makes people defensive in response to uncertainty, a manipulation to increase self-integrity might work to inoculate, or at least temporarily buffer, against uncertainty threat.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Uncertainty and religious reactivity: Uncertainty compensation, repair, and inoculation

Wichman

2009

Euro J Social Psych

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Recent research conducted in Western, democratic societies indicates that temporary uncertainty inductions lead to intolerance of religious dissent, increased conviction in religious attitudes, and even increased support for holy war. Past and current conflicts based on religious ideology underscore the danger such responses to uncertainty can pose. This paper responds to the need to learn how to control responses to uncertainty. After having confirmed through pilot testing that uncertainty increases self‐report religious faith, two subsequent studies investigate different techniques to control compensatory responses to uncertainty. Study 1 demonstrates that uncertainty‐induced increases in religiosity can be eliminated by a post‐uncertainty directed positive recall writing task. Study 2 presents evidence for an uncertainty “inoculation,” whereby a pre‐uncertainty self‐affirmation exercise can protect against uncertainty compensation effects. These findings, in combination with a consideration of previous research, offer insight into how undesirable uncertainty compensation effects might be reduced and even prevented. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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“…Somewhat paradoxically, uncertainty in one domain of life results in an increase of certainty, reflected in extreme convictions, in other (frequently political) domains (McGregor, 2006;McGregor & Marigold, 2003). Thus, political extremism is related to a structured way of thinking aimed at making sense of society and the way it functions.…”

Section: Conspiracy Beliefs and Extreme Political Ideologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? Evidence from Sweden

Krouwel¹,

Kutiyski²,

Prooijen

et al. 2017

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

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A large volume of academic research has demonstrated that individuals who profess radical political ideology, both left-and right-wing, tend to share similar underlying psychological patterns. By utilizing data collected through a voting advice application in Sweden, this study aims to assess whether extreme leftists and rightists share similarities in the psychological and political understanding of how society functions. We propose three hypotheses to test this pattern: Extreme left and right individuals are more inclined to believe in conspiracy theories than moderates; they are more likely to have negative economic evaluations; and they are less politically and interpersonally trustful. By means of hierarchical regression analyses, we reveal a quadratic relationship between extreme political ideology and conspiracy beliefs. Moreover, we find a similar linkage between ideology and economic evaluations. However, the empirical analyses fail to provide evidence that extreme ideology is related to lower political and interpersonal trust.Keywords: political ideology, economic evaluations, trust, conspiracy belief, extremism Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 2017, Vol. 5(2), 435-462, doi:10.5964/jspp.v5i2.745 Received: 2016-12-08. Accepted: 2017-09-10. Published (VoR): 2017-10-28.Handling Editor: Małgorzata Kossowska, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland *Corresponding author at: Nieuwezijds Voorburgwal 334 2 1012 RW Amsterdam, The Netherlands. E-mail: andre.krouwel@vu.nl This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Throughout the 20 th century, radical political ideologies served as the propeller of tragic events that have left a deep mark in human history (Baumeister, 1997;Midlarsky, 2011). Movements of the radical right, such as Fascism and Nazism, were ideologically driven to commit unimaginable crimes against humanity which resulted in the death of millions. On the left, communist regimes in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states, as well as in numerous Asian countries were responsible for comparable atrocities. Even though there are substantial differences between these ideologies, political psychologists have noted that extreme left-and right-wing ideologies may share a similar underlying psychological pattern (Greenberg & Jonas, 2003). In order to assess whether rigid devotion to extreme political ideology on both the left and the right corresponds to a similar psychological under- jspp.psychopen.eu | 2195-3325 standing of the world, it is necessary to compare radical individuals and test if their comprehension of the functioning of society is identical. Journal of Social and Political PsychologyAlthough extremist regimes of the past are in many ways hard to compare to political actors that are considered relatively extreme in the current politi...

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Defensive Zeal and the Uncertain Self: What Makes You So Sure?

Cited by 192 publications

References 83 publications

Not All Ideologies are Created Equal: Epistemic, Existential, and Relational Needs Predict System-Justifying Attitudes

Not All Ideologies are Created Equal: Epistemic, Existential, and Relational Needs Predict System-Justifying Attitudes

Uncertainty and religious reactivity: Uncertainty compensation, repair, and inoculation

Does extreme political ideology predict conspiracy beliefs, economic evaluations and political trust? Evidence from Sweden

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