Social Groups as the Source of Political Belief Systems: Fresh Evidence on an Old Theory

Abstract

We present novel evidence that attitudes toward nonpartisan social groups structure political belief systems. First, we show that most Americans have a rich knowledge of the social groups that support and oppose group-related policies. This knowledge often exceeds people’s awareness of where Democrats and Republicans stand on these same issues. Then, we show that this knowledge promotes what Philip Converse called ideological coherence: Americans who know which groups support and oppose a policy are more likely to hold stable policy positions over time and to organize their attitudes into consistently liberal or conservative bundles. In the twentieth century, knowledge of social groups’ issue positions rivaled knowledge of parties’ positions in its ability to generate attitude stability and constraint. However, as party identification has strengthened in recent decades, knowledge of parties’ positions has become the most important source of structure in most Americans’ belief systems.

Self-reported political ideology

“…Nor do we assert that the most ideologically sophisticated individuals ought to share the same understandings of these terms. While the textbook definitions are generally consistent with the conventional understanding of ideology in American politics (e.g., Conover and Feldman, 1981;Ellis and Stimson, 2012), political psychology (e.g., Luttbeg and Gant, 1985;Jost et al, 2003;Alford et al, 2005;Jost et al, 2009;Kinder and Kalmoe, 2017;Kalmoe, 2020;Jost, 2021;van der Linden et al, 2021;Elder and O'Brian, 2022), and other major textbooks in American politics (e.g., Ginsberg et al, 2019;Harrison et al, 2019), some may define "liberal" and "conservative" in other ways. Some scholars, for example, have identified a social dimension in which conservatives prefer government intervention more than liberals do (e.g., Layman and Carsey, 2002;Lee, 2009).…”

Inter‐attitude centrality does not appear to reduce persuasion for political attitudes

“…We focused on attitudes about political policies; however, another type of attitude that is likely relevant in belief systems are people's attitudes about groups. Some recent research suggests that group prejudices, for example, are an important determinant of an attitude's stability (Elder & O'Brian, 2022). Thus, it might be that particular types of attitudes—like values, identities and group prejudices—may be necessary for inter‐attitude centrality effects to occur.…”

Who are the Cosmopolitans? How Perceived Social Sorting and Social Identities Relate to European and National Identities

“…Social sorting occurs when individuals perceive certain social groups as associated with particular political affiliations (Kane et al, 2020; Mason & Wronski, 2018). This research has demonstrated that individuals in the US context pay attention to which social groups support which party and policy positions (Elder & O'Brian, 2022; Mason & Wronski, 2018). Consequently, these perceptions of social sorting influence the degree of affective partisan polarization and shape individuals’ positions on policy issues (Mason & Wronski, 2018).…”