The closed mind: ‘Experience’ and ‘cognition’ aspects of openness to experience and need for closure as psychological bases for right–wing attitudes

Abstract

Openness to Experience and Need for Closure (NFC) are dispositional variables related to social-cultural right-wing attitudes. The present study investigated their joint effects. Factor analysis revealed an 'experiential' dimension with high loading openness items, and a 'cognition' dimension with high loadings for most NFC items and about a quarter of the openness item set. The experiential openness items were weakly related to right-wing attitudes, demonstrating little predictive value. Conversely, the cognitive openness and NFC items were powerful predictors of right-wing attitudes, and also played an important role in integrative models, both as a predictor of authoritarianismbased racism and as a mediator of age related increments in right-wing attitudes. It is concluded that right-wing attitudes should be primarily understood in terms of (motivated) cognition, and to a smaller extent in terms of experiential openness. The distinction between 'experiential' and 'cognitive' openness is critically assessed, and it is asserted that because cognition is a multifaceted construct openness contains more than one cognitive dimension.

The Motivated Gatekeeper of Our Minds

“…Yet, NFC is distinct from these alternative notions by dint of its explicitly motivational rather than cognitive or personality basis (for more elaborate arguments on this point, see Kruglanski, 2004;. Moreover, empirically, NFC yields relatively modest relations with these variables (usually <j0.30j) and, as we note at a later juncture, yields unique relations with third variables (see e.g., Onraet, Van Hiel, Roets, & Cornelis, 2011;Roets & Van Hiel, 2011b). …”

“…Consistent with this parallelism, a number of studies have shown dispositional NFC to be strongly related to various measures of blatant, subtle, and modern forms of racial prejudice (e.g., Onraet et al, 2011;, 2011aVan Hiel et al, 2004) and even to implicit measures of racism (Cunningham, Nezlek, & Banaji, 2004). Moreover, NFC has also been linked to other targets of prejudice, for example, groups based on sexual orientation or identity (Brandt & Reyna, 2010;Tebbe & Moradi, 2012).…”

“…Indeed, research over the past decade has consistently demonstrated that individual differences in NFC are strongly related to conservatism and Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA; e.g., Cornelis et al, 2009;Dhont et al, 2013;Golec de Zavala & Van Bergh, 2007;Jost et al, 2003;Kossowska & Van Hiel, 2003;Kruglanski et al, 2006;Onraet et al, 2011;Van Hiel et al, 2004). Moreover, the assumption that NFC underlies authoritarian ideology is further supported by studies showing that situationally induced NFC also leads to typical expressions of authoritarianism, such as the derogation of opinion deviants (Kruglanski & Webster, 1991), the formation of and preference for autocratic group structures with centralized authority (Pierro et al, 2003), and an increased need for conformity and consensus (Kruglanski et al, 1993).…”

“…Studies by Cunningham et al (2004), Onraet et al (2011), Van Hiel et al (2004) have demonstrated that elevated endorsement of authoritarian attitudes largely explains high NFC individuals' increased levels of blatant, subtle, and even implicit racism. Such models have typically revealed substantial mediation effects through RWA (Altemeyer, 1981(Altemeyer, , 1998 and to a lesser degree through Social Dominance Orientation (SDO; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994).…”

When threat to society becomes a threat to oneself: Implications for right‐wing attitudes and ethnic prejudice

“…The importance of personal threat consequences in explaining ethnic prejudice, rather than right-wing attitudes, might be explained by the fact that ethnic prejudice is more affectively driven, whereas right-wing attitudes, such as RWA and SDO, have a more cognitive outlook (e.g., Onraet, Van Hiel, Roets, & Cornelis, 2011). It may be expected that the experience of potential personal problems may evoke strong negative emotions, such as fear and anxiety, leading to higher levels of ethnic prejudice (see Kossowska, Bukowski, & Van Hiel, 2008).…”