Political Conservatives’ Affinity for Obedience to Authority Is Loyal, Not Blind

Abstract

Liberals and conservatives disagree about obeying authorities, with conservatives holding the more positive views. We suggest that reactions to conservative authorities, rather than to obedience itself, are responsible for the division. Past findings that conservatives favor obedience uniformly confounded obedience with conservative authorities. We break down obedience to authority into its constituent parts to test the divisiveness of each part. The concepts of obedience (Study 1) and authority (Study 2) recruited inferences of conservative authorities, conflating results of simple, seemingly face valid tests of their divisiveness. These results establish necessary features of a valid test, to which Study 3 conforms. Conservatives have the more positive moral views of obedience only when the authorities are conservative (e.g., commanding officers); liberals do when the authorities are liberal (e.g., environmentalists). The two camps agree about obeying ideologically neutral authorities (e.g., office managers). Obedience itself is not ideologically divisive.

Deep Alignment with Country Shrinks the Moral Gap Between Conservatives and Liberals

“…We believe this is an important contribution because most research showing any convergence of liberal and conservative values has only been able to do so by altering the content of those values to match participants’ ideologies. For example, Frimer, Gaucher, and Schaefer () show that liberals and conservatives value authority equally, but only when deferring to authorities aligned with their ideology (e.g., liberals feel positively about obeying civil rights activists’ while conservatives feel positively about obeying commanding officers). Likewise, Frimer, Tell, and Motyl () show that liberals and conservatives both value sanctity, but only for ideology‐congruent issues (e.g., liberals value maintaining the purity of the environment; conservatives value maintaining the purity of traditional marriage).…”

Sacralizing Liberals and Fair‐Minded Conservatives: Ideological Symmetry in the Moral Motives in the Culture War

“…This study joins a growing literature that suggests that liberals and conservatives are more alike in their moral functioning than previously thought. Like conservatives, liberals discriminate against outgroups (Wetherell, Brandt, & Reyna, ) and demand that other people obey their group's authorities (Frimer, Gaucher, & Schaefer, ). Like conservatives, liberals idolize leaders like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Frimer et al., ).…”

Strategies for promoting strong inferences in political psychology research

“…More recent research on ideological differences in prejudice, intolerance, and authority obedience, however, have generated competing hypotheses and designed studies to allow for the possibility of arriving at the exact opposite conclusion (e.g., liberals are more intolerant, etc., e.g., Frimer, Gaucher, & Schaefer, 2014). This research found that yes, conservatives are more prejudiced against groups that pose perceived threats to cherished PROMOTING STRONG INFERENCES IN POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY 7 conservative values (e.g., racial or sexual minorities).…”

“…But liberals express similar levels of prejudice and discrimination against groups that violate their cherished values (e.g., pro-life advocates and Tea Party supporters, . Additionally, liberals and conservatives both have positive views about obeying authorities, once one takes into account whether the authority is generally perceived as a more liberal or conservative one (Frimer et al, 2014). Both groups are positive about obeying authorities that they see as representing their respective values.…”