“Obedience to traditional authority:” A heritable factor underlying authoritarianism, conservatism and religiousness

Ludeke, Steven G.; Johnson, Wendy; Bouchard, Thomas J.

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.03.018

Cited by 80 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…research should consider what can be gained from utilizing a multi-item measure of religiosity in a genetically information sample (see also Ludeke, Johnson, and Bouchard 2013). The differences that we find between social and economic ideology are instructive on this point, as they would have not been detected had we used a single-item measure of political ideology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…These findings provide evidence that the overlap between the religious and the political in the American context may be due to underlying principles regarding how to understand and organize society and that these principles may be adopted to satisfy biologically-influenced psychological needs (Jost et al 2003;Ludeke, Johnson and Bouchard 2013). However, despite these shared influences, there is still a significant amount of genetic and environmental variation in these traits that remains to be accounted for, which suggests that future research should continue to explore alternative pathways in explaining these variables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…If political elites are not tapping into religious frames (Snow, Rochford, Worden and Benford 1986) and expect a similar orientation in society. These connections were demonstrated in a recent study that found a common genetic factor underlying right wing authoritarianism, conservatism on political issues, and religious fundamentalism (Ludeke, Johnson, and Bouchard 2013),…”

Section: Religion and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Our study builds upon this framework by identifying specific paths for shared genetic influence between religiosity, ideology, and bedrock social principles, the latter of which may help with issues of culturally specific constructs (Ludeke, Johnson, and Bouchard 2013). In addition, Ludeke, Johnson, and Bouchard (2013) propose that their examination of traditionalism or obedience to authority may uncover one factor behind religious and political beliefs but that this factor is likely separate from a related but different trait regarding egalitarianism or economic issue preferences (Funk et al 2013). By distinguishing internal religious beliefs from external religious behaviors, separating social and economic ideology, and examining three distinct sets of bedrock social principles, we are able to demonstrate that genetics explain covariation between some of these variables, but not others.…”

Section: Religion and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At least in part, this is because existing political science frameworks tend to treat political and religious attitudes as independent concepts and frequently ignore the common origins of these belief systems. The notion that these belief systems may not be independent, that they may be the product of common underlying environmental and, especially, biological forces has only been recently tested and integrated into a single, comprehensive theoretical framework within psychology to explain a general orientation toward authority (Bouchard 2009;Koenig and Bouchard 2006;Ludeke, Johnson, and Bouchard 2013). We build upon this framework to explore two dimensions of ideology (economic and social) and the nature of their shared variance with religiosity and broader first principles for organizing society.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?

Friesen

Ksiazkiewicz

2014

Polit Behav

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Social scientists have long recognized and sought to explain a connection between religious and political beliefs. Our research challenges the prevalent view that religion and politics constitute separate but related belief sets with a conceptual model that suggests the correlation between the two may be partially explained by an underlying psychological construct reflecting first principle beliefs on social organization. Moreover, we also push this challenge further by considering whether part of the relationship between political and religious beliefs is the result of shared genetic influences, which would suggest that a shared biological predisposition, or set of biological predispositions, underlies these attitudes. Using a classic twin design on a sample of American adults, we demonstrate that certain religious, political, and first principle beliefs can be explained by genetic and unique environmental components, and that the correlation between these three trait structures is primarily due to a common genetic path. As predicted, this relationship is found to hold for social ideology, but not for economic ideology. These findings provide evidence that the overlap between the religious and the political in the American context may in part be due to underlying principles regarding how to understand and organize society and that these principles may be adopted to satisfy biologically-influenced psychological needs.Key words: Behavior genetics; religion and politics; twin study; ideologyThe data employed in this project is publicly available and collected with the financial support of the National Science Foundation in the form of SES-0721378, PI: John R. Hibbing; Co-PIs: John R. Alford, Lindon J. Eaves, Carolyn L. Funk, Peter K. Hatemi, and Kevin B. Smith, and with the cooperation of the Minnesota Twin Registry at the University of Minnesota, Robert Krueger and Matthew McGue, Directors. Rather than thinking about religious beliefs influencing political attitudes through an intentional cognitive process (e.g. The Bible says homosexuality is wrong, therefore I oppose gay marriage) or political attitudes leading to changes in religious affiliation upon entering adulthood (Putnam and Campbell 2012), this study examines whether these belief systems overlap at least in part because they both represent an individual's preferences for "bedrock principles of group life," such as a preference for maintaining traditional moral values in society (Smith, Oxley, Hibbing, Alford and Hibbing 2011b). Our research challenges the prevalent view that religion and politics constitute separate but related belief sets with a conceptual model that explains both political and religious beliefs as rooted in the same underlying psychological construct reflecting first principle beliefs on social organization. Moreover, we also push this challenge further by considering whether part of the relationship between political and religious beliefs is the result of shared genetic influences, which would suggest that a shared predispo...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Religion and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Religion and Politicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?

Friesen

Ksiazkiewicz

2014

Polit Behav

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Anthropomorphizing religious advertising: The moderating role of political ideology

Esch

Cui

Arli

et al. 2022

Psychology and Marketing

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We examine the anthropomorphism of brands as either a servant or a partner in religious advertising. Across five studies, we demonstrate that the impact of such anthropomorphism depends on consumers' political ideology. When exposed to religious advertisements (vs. nonreligious advertisements; Studies 1B and 1C), politically conservative consumers are more favorable toward brand-as-a-servant anthropomorphism (Study 1), which arises from greater state-based compassion (Study 2). However, this conditional preference for servant anthropomorphism only occurs for less religious consumers (Study 3). This study informs marketers regarding optimizing the effectiveness of using anthropomorphic brand images in religious advertising predicated on political ideology-based segmentation strategies. The key takeaway is that portraying a brand as a servant is more appealing for conservative consumers who are less religious.

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Parent–Child Similarity in Common and Specific Components of Prejudice: The Role of Ideological Attitudes and Political Discussion

Meeusen

Dhont

2015

Eur J Pers

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Using a representative sample of Belgian adolescents (N = 1530) and both their parents, we investigated the parent–child similarity in prejudice towards different out‐groups and ideological attitudes (right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation). Contrary to previous studies, first, we distinguished between common and specific components of prejudice to test whether the parent–child similarity in one specific type of prejudice was symptomatic of parent–child similarity in prejudice towards out‐groups in general. Second, we evaluated whether the parent–child similarity in common and specific components of prejudice was related to the parent–child similarity in ideological attitudes. Third, we investigated the moderating role of political discussion in the intergenerational framework of ideology and prejudice. Results indicated that parent–child similarity was particularly pronounced for the common rather than the specific component of prejudice and that the similarity in ideological attitudes was partly related to the similarity in the common component of prejudice. Finally, adolescents who discuss social and political issues more (versus less) frequently with their parents more strongly resembled their parents in the common component of prejudice and levels of authoritarianism. These results suggest that generalized prejudice runs in families and highlight politicization of the family as an important socialization mechanism. Copyright © 2015 European Association of Personality Psychology

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“Obedience to traditional authority:” A heritable factor underlying authoritarianism, conservatism and religiousness

Cited by 80 publications

References 20 publications

Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?

Do Political Attitudes and Religiosity Share a Genetic Path?

Anthropomorphizing religious advertising: The moderating role of political ideology

Parent–Child Similarity in Common and Specific Components of Prejudice: The Role of Ideological Attitudes and Political Discussion

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