The Association of Religiosity and Political Conservatism: The Role of Political Engagement

Malka, Ariel; Lelkes, Yphtach; Srivastava, Sanjay; Cohen, Adam B.; Miller, Dale T.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9221.2012.00875.x

Cited by 100 publications

(92 citation statements)

References 49 publications

(97 reference statements)

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“…As for other forms of conservatism, some evidence suggests small overall effects of religiosity on right‐wing attitudes (Friesen & Ksiazkiewicz, ; Jost et al, ; Malka et al, ) that vary in strength, and even direction, across denominations (Layman & Green, ) and levels of exposure to political discourse (Malka et al, ; Malka & Soto, ). We discuss these sources of variability in subsequent sections.…”

Section: The Psychological Bases Of Political Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We discuss these sources of variability in subsequent sections. Furthermore, religiosity has sometimes been shown to predict left‐wing positions on torture and the death penalty (Malka and Soto, ; Malka et al, ) and “economic communitarianism” involving expressed concern for the well‐being of immigrants (Van Heuvelen & Robinson, ; see also Bohman & Hjerm, ). With respect to economics in particular, evidence does not suggest a durable link with right‐wing economic views (see Malka, , for a review).…”

Section: The Psychological Bases Of Political Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

Federico

Malka

2018

Political Psychology

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155

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Research on the dispositional origins of political preferences is flourishing, and the primary conclusion drawn from this work is that stronger needs for security and certainty attract people to a broad-based politically conservative ideology. Though this literature covers much ground, most integrative assessments of it have paid insufficient attention to the presence and implications of contingencies in the relationship between dispositional attributes and political attitudes. In this article, we review research showing that relationships between needs for security and certainty and political preferences vary considerably-sometimes to the point of directional shifts-on the basis of (1) issue domain and (2) contextual factors governing the content and volume of political discourse individuals are exposed to. On the basis of this evidence, we argue that relationships between dispositional attributes and political preferences vary in the extent to which they reflect an organic functional resonance between dispositions and preferences or identity-expressive motivation to adopt a political attitude merely because it is discursively packaged with other need-congruent attitudes. We contend that such a distinction is critical to gaining a realistic understanding of the origins and nature of ideological belief systems, and we consequently recommend an increased focus on issue-based and contextual variation in relationships between dispositions and political preferences.KEY WORDS: political preferences, ideology, needs for security and certainty, political expertise Why do individuals' political preferences lean to the left or to the right? To put it mildly, a great amount of social-scientific ink has been spilled addressing this question. Some perspectives suggest that political preferences are a function of interests associated with the positions of the social groups one belongs to, with members of more powerful groups adopting more conservative views (e.g., Bobo, 1999;Huber & Form, 1973;Kluegel & Smith, 1986; Marx & Engels, 1846/1970Runciman, 1966;Sears & Funk, 1991;Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Weeden & Kurzban, 2014). Other approaches have focused more closely on social relationships, with a sizable body of research suggesting that people adopt the political attitudes and beliefs that are normative in the reference groups with which they identify (Berelson, Lazarsfeld, & McPhee, 1954;Merton, 1957;Newcomb, 1943) or common within their families or social networks (Huckfeldt, Johnson, & Sprague, 2004;Jennings & Niemi, 1981; Advances in Political Psychology, Vol. 39, Suppl. 1, 2018 doi: 10.1111 bs_bs_banner Jost, Ledgerwood, & Hardin, 2008;Sears & Levy, 2003). Last but not least, research in political science zeroes in on the role of political parties, arguing that individuals acquire the preferences enunciated by the leaders of the parties they identify with (Campbell, Converse, Miller, & Stokes, 1960;Goren, 2005;Lenz, 2013;Zaller, 1992). Approaches like these share a common thread: They focus on the social or contextua...

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Section: The Psychological Bases Of Political Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Psychological Bases Of Political Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

Federico

Malka

2018

Political Psychology

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155

226

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“…The exhortations of altruism, fellowship, and the common bond of all humanity captured in the quotation from Matthew convey a major theme of the New Testament, indeed one arguably much more central to the teachings of Christ than the cultural issues that have served as the rallying call for many Christian churches and television networks (1). However, in the decades since the New Deal, the Republican party, which has become ever more opposed to progressive taxation, expenditures for social services, lenient treatment of illegal immigrants and their families, and other policies designed to ease the burdens of the least fortunate, has enjoyed increasing electoral support from members of the Christian Right (2,3). Liberally inclined Christians, fewer in number, face a different challenge.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Many studies show that devout Christians are, on average, more conservative than less devout Christians and more conservative than secular Americans (2, 4, 6-8), a phenomenon Olson and Green (5) term the "religion gap." Social scientists have posited two different pathways potentially linking conservative ideology to Christianity (2,9). First, the same epistemic and existential needs that are served by religiosity may also be served by conservative ideology (10).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Once in the Republican fold, Christian voters attracted primarily by these positions on cultural issues are disproportionately exposed to, and come to adopt, the economic positions of their political reference group (15,16). This social identity and peer influence account is further bolstered by evidence that the connection between religiosity and the adoption of conservative issue positions is heavily moderated by political engagement (2,9,17).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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How Christians reconcile their personal political views and the teachings of their faith: Projection as a means of dissonance reduction

Ross¹,

Lelkes

Russell³

2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The present study explores the dramatic projection of one's own views onto those of Jesus among conservative and liberal American Christians. In a large-scale survey, the relevant views that each group attributed to a contemporary Jesus differed almost as much as their own views. Despite such dissonance-reducing projection, however, conservatives acknowledged the relevant discrepancy with regard to “fellowship” issues (e.g., taxation to reduce economic inequality and treatment of immigrants) and liberals acknowledged the relevant discrepancy with regard to “morality” issues (e.g., abortion and gay marriage). However, conservatives also claimed that a contemporary Jesus would be even more conservative than themselves on the former issues whereas liberals claimed that Jesus would be even more liberal than themselves on the latter issues. Further reducing potential dissonance, liberal and conservative Christians differed markedly in the types of issues they claimed to be more central to their faith. A concluding discussion considers the relationship between individual motivational processes and more social processes that may underlie the present findings, as well as implications for contemporary social and political conflict.

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The relationship of types of intuition to thinking styles, beliefs, and cognitions

Dennin

Furman

Pretz

et al. 2022

Behavioral Decision Making

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We argue that intuition is a multifaceted construct, a single label applied to three distinct types of intuition: Holistic, Inferential, and Affective. The goals of this study were to (1) evaluate the independence of these types of intuition and (2) examine the relationships between each type and various thinking styles, beliefs, and cognitions.Results confirmed the distinction among of the types of intuition and established their differential relationships to other relevant constructs including need for cognition, rumination, religiosity, spirituality, conservatism, cognitive reflection, scientific reasoning, and bullshit receptivity. Affective intuition was associated with participants' religious and political beliefs and with lower levels of cognitive reflection and scientific reasoning. Holistic intuition was positively associated with thinking styles such as need for cognition and the propensity to ruminate. Inferential intuition was not strongly related to any of the measures used in this study, perhaps because our tasks did not rely on domain expertise. The results of this study have implications for theory about intuition and on the applications of intuition in areas such as in judgment and decision-making.

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The Association of Religiosity and Political Conservatism: The Role of Political Engagement

Cited by 100 publications

References 49 publications

The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

How Christians reconcile their personal political views and the teachings of their faith: Projection as a means of dissonance reduction

The relationship of types of intuition to thinking styles, beliefs, and cognitions

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