Dimensional Structures of Human Societies: An Alternative Interpretation of Agoramétrie-Type Survey Results

Abstract

Surveys of social and political issues using Agoramétrie methodology drawn from widely different social environments have revealed consistent two-dimensional, factor-analytic solutions. Rukavishnikov and van Meter refer to the first dimension as "modern-radical/traditional-conservative" and "openness/closedness"; the second, as "frustration/satisfaction" and "emotional/non-emotional". These distinctions are critically evaluated and an alternative interpretation is proposed. Two sociorelational dimensions are drawn from Douglas's Grid-Group Theory, interpreted as two pairs of opposite social-relations models of Fiske-Haslam-Bolender Relational Models Theory. Accordingly, the Group emphasizes communal-sharing (CS) as opposed to market-pricing (MP); the Grid, authority-ranking (AR) as opposed to equality-matching (EM). Affect-Spectrum Theory links valenced, secondary-level emotions to quadrants of the Grid-Group space, with quadrants characterized by sets of secondary-level emotions. Van Meter's hypothesis that the two-dimensional survey results suggest two kinds of human societies, the "cooperative" and the "hierarchical" is reasonable, but it is proposed that the sociorelational bases of these societal types are the complementarities between CS and EM, and between AR and MP. Neurosociological implications of the data and theorizing are discussed.