Liberalism and Conservatism, for a Change! Rethinking the Association Between Political Orientation and Relation to Societal Change

Abstract

According to common wisdom, which is supported by extant psychological theorizing, a core feature of political conservatism (vs. liberalism) is the resistance to (vs. acceptance of) societal change. We propose that an empirical examination of the actual difference in political liberals’ and conservatives’ attitudes toward change across different sociopolitical issues may call into question this assumed association between political orientation and relation to change. We examined this proposition in four studies conducted in Germany. In Study 1, we assessed lay people's intuitions about liberals’ and conservatives’ attitudes toward change. Results of this study concur with theoretical assumptions that liberals accept and conservatives resist change. In Study 2a, Study 2b, and Study 3, self‐identified liberals and conservatives were asked whether they would resist or accept change on various sociopolitical issues. Results of these studies suggest that both conservatives and liberals resist and accept societal changes, depending on the extent to which they approve or disapprove of the status quo on a given sociopolitical issue. Overall, our findings provide no evidence for a one‐directional association between political orientation and the tendency to accept or resist change. These findings therefore challenge theoretical and lay assumptions regarding general, context‐independent psychological differences underlying political ideologies.

Is Disgust a “Conservative” Emotion?

“…Finally, our findings have broader implications for research on individual differences. Following Wells and Windschitl (1999), sampling stimuli is as important as sampling participants to rule out confounds and to generalize scientific findings (see also Elad-Strenger & Shahar, 2017; Proch, Elad-Strenger, & Kessler, 2019, with regard to political ideology). Therefore, any study that aims to identify general differences between individuals should promote broad stimuli sampling, in both measurement and scale construction.…”

Of deadly beans and risky stocks: Political ideology and attitude formation via exploration depend on the nature of the attitude stimuli

“…The examination of individual differences with a limited selection of stimuli may lead to spurious findings of differences that may actually reflect the selection of the stimuli used in the studies. For example, the assumption that conservatives are more resistant to social change than liberals is true only with some political and societal issues but reverses with other issues (Proch, Elad‐Strenger, & Kessler, 2019). Similarly, higher disgust sensitivity of conservatives reflects the selection of items used in disgust scales rather than actual differences between liberals and conservatives (Elad‐Strenger, Proch, & Kessler, 2019).…”

Beyond ‘Liberals’ and ‘Conservatives’: Complexity in Ideology, Moral Intuitions, and Worldview among Swedish Voters

“…For example, we focused on general attitude to social change at an abstract level. By contrast, Proch, Elad‐Strenger, and Kessler (2019) measured attitudes toward change across different socio‐political issues, finding that whether people support or accept change depends on their view of the status quo on the given issue. Similarly, Freeden (2010) has argued that all political ideologies advocate some forms of change while resisting others.…”