1932

Abstract

Explorations of political attitudes and ideologies have sought to explain where they come from. They have been presumed to be rooted in processes of socialization; to be imposed by elites through partisan affiliations, the social milieu, and experiences; or to result from psychological traits. Far less attention has been focused on the inherent component of attitudes and where attitudes lead. Synthesizing research across academic fields, we propose that attitudes are a core constituent element of individual temperament, with far-reaching influence on many aspects of psychological and social functioning. Once instantiated, political values guide human behavior across domains, including affiliation into social networks, mate selection, physiological perception, psychological disposition, personality characteristics, morality construction, decision making, and selection into the very environments that influence political preferences. Here, we reconceptualize the ontology of political attitudes and ideologies from both a top-down and bottom-up perspective and as a combination of biological and environmental processes that drive an entire suite of coordinated downstream effects across the life course.

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-103113-034929
2016-05-11
2024-03-19
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

/deliver/fulltext/polisci/19/1/annurev-polisci-103113-034929.html?itemId=/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-103113-034929&mimeType=html&fmt=ahah

Literature Cited

  1. Adolphs R. 2008. Fear, faces, and the human amygdala. Curr. Opin. Neurobiol. 18:166–72 [Google Scholar]
  2. Ahn W-Y, Kishida KT, Gu X. et al. 2014. Nonpolitical images evoke neural predictors of political ideology. Curr. Biol. 24:2693–99 [Google Scholar]
  3. Alford JR, Hatemi PK, Hibbing JR. et al. 2011. The politics of mate choice. J. Polit. 73:362–79 [Google Scholar]
  4. Altemeyer RA. 1981. Right-wing Authoritarianism Winnipeg: Univ. Manitoba Press
  5. Alwin DF, Cohen RL, Newcomb TM. 1991. Political Attitudes Over the Life Span: The Bennington Women After Fifty Years Madison: Univ. Wisc. Press
  6. Amodio DM, Jost JT, Master SL, Yee CM. 2007. Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism. Nat. Neurosci. 10:1246–47 [Google Scholar]
  7. Antony MM, Rowa K, Liss A. et al. 2005. Social comparison processes in social phobia. Behav. Ther. 36:65–75 [Google Scholar]
  8. Axelrod R. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation New York: Basic Books
  9. Baum MA. 2011. Red state, blue state, flu state: media self-selection and partisan gaps in swine flu vaccinations. J. Health Polit. Policy Law 36:1021–59 [Google Scholar]
  10. Bawn K, Cohen M, Karol D. et al. 2012. A theory of political parties: groups, policy demands and nominations in American politics. Perspect. Polit. 10:571–97 [Google Scholar]
  11. Berelson B, Lazarsfeld PF, McPhee WA. 1954. Voting: A Study of Opinion Formation in a Presidential Campaign Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press395
  12. Bishop B. 2008. The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America is Tearing Us Apart Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  13. Campbell A, Converse PE, Miller WE, Stokes DE. 1960. The American Voter New York: Wiley. viii573
  14. Campbell TH, Kay AC. 2014. Solution aversion: on the relation between ideology and motivated disbelief. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 107:809 [Google Scholar]
  15. Carney DR, Jost JT, Gosling SD, Potter J. 2008. The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Polit. Psychol. 29:807–40 [Google Scholar]
  16. Carraro L, Dalmaso M, Castelli L, Galfano G. 2015. The politics of attention contextualized: gaze but not arrow cuing of attention is moderated by political temperament. Cogn. Process. 16:309–14 [Google Scholar]
  17. Costa PT, McCrae RR. 1995. Domains and facets: hierarchical personality assessment using the revised NEO personality inventory. J. Pers. Assess. 64:21–50 [Google Scholar]
  18. Dennis TA, Amodio DM, O'Toole LJ. 2014. Associations between parental ideology and neural sensitivity to cognitive conflict in children. Soc. Neurosci. 10:206–17 [Google Scholar]
  19. Dodd MD, Hibbing JR, Smith KB. 2011. The politics of attention: gaze-cuing effects are moderated by political temperament. Attention Percept. Psychophys. 73:24–29 [Google Scholar]
  20. Druckman JN, Lupia A. 2000. Preference formation. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 3:1–24 [Google Scholar]
  21. Eagly AH, Chaiken S. 1993. The Psychology of Attitudes Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publ794
  22. Eaves LJ, Eysenck HJ. 1974. Genetics and the development of social attitudes. Nature 249:288–89 [Google Scholar]
  23. Eidelman S, Crandall CS, Goodman JA, Blanchar JC. 2012. Low-effort thought promotes political conservatism. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 38:808–20 [Google Scholar]
  24. Emler N. 2003. Morality and political orientations: an analysis of their relationship. Eur. Rev. Soc. Psychol. 13:259–91 [Google Scholar]
  25. Emler N, Renwick S, Malone B. 1983. The relationship between moral reasoning and political orientation. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 45:1073 [Google Scholar]
  26. Fowler JH, Christakis NA. 2013. Friendship and Natural Selection San Diego: Univ. Calif. Press
  27. Fowler JH, Schreiber D. 2008. Biology, politics, and the emerging science of human nature. Science 322:912–14 [Google Scholar]
  28. Frenda SJ, Knowles ED, Saletan W, Loftus EF. 2013. False memories of fabricated political events. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 49:280–86 [Google Scholar]
  29. Garrett RK, Stroud NJ. 2014. Partisan paths to exposure diversity: differences in pro- and counterattitudinal news consumption. J. Commun. 64:680–701 [Google Scholar]
  30. Graham J, Haidt J, Nosek BA. 2009. Liberals and conservatives rely on different sets of moral foundations. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 96:1029–46 [Google Scholar]
  31. Haidt J. 2012. The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion New York: Vintage Books
  32. Harris JR. 1995. Where is the child's environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychol. Rev. 102:458–89 [Google Scholar]
  33. Hatemi PK, Krasnow M, McDermott R. 2012. Do you see what I see? Not if you are a liberal and I am a conservative Presented at Annu. Meet. Midwest Polit. Sci. Assoc., Apr. 12–15, Chicago
  34. Hatemi PK, McDermott R. 2012. The genetics of politics: discovery, challenges, and progress. Trends Genet. 28:525–33 [Google Scholar]
  35. Hatemi PK, Medland SE, Klemmensen R. et al. 2014. Genetic influences on political ideologies: twin analyses of 19 measures of political ideologies from five democracies and genome-wide findings from three populations. Behav. Genet. 44:282–94 [Google Scholar]
  36. Hatemi PK, Verhulst B. 2015. Political attitudes develop independently of personality traits. PLOS ONE 10:e0118106 [Google Scholar]
  37. Hibbing JR, Smith KB. 2007. The biology of political behavior: an introduction. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 614:6–14 [Google Scholar]
  38. Hibbing JR, Smith KB, Alford JR. 2014. Differences in negativity bias underlie variations in political ideology. Behav. Brain Sci. 37:297–307 [Google Scholar]
  39. Holbrook AL, Berent MK, Krosnick JA. et al. 2005. Attitude importance and the accumulation of attitude-relevant knowledge in memory. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 88:749 [Google Scholar]
  40. Janoff-Bulman R. 2009. To provide or protect: motivational bases of political liberalism and conservatism. Psychol. Inq. 20:120–28 [Google Scholar]
  41. Janoff-Bulman R, Sheikh S, Baldacci KG. 2008. Mapping moral motives: approach, avoidance, and political orientation. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 44:1091–99 [Google Scholar]
  42. Jennings MK, Niemi RG. 1968. The transmission of political values from parent to child. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 62:169–84 [Google Scholar]
  43. Jennings MK, Niemi RG. 1981. Generations and Politics: A Panel Study of Young Adults and Their Parents Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press427
  44. Jervis R. 1976. Perception and Misperception in International Relations Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press
  45. Jost JT, Amodio DM. 2012. Political ideology as motivated social cognition: behavioral and neuroscientific evidence. Motiv. Emot. 36:55–64 [Google Scholar]
  46. Jost JT, Glaser J, Kruglanski AW, Sulloway FJ. 2003. Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychol. Bull. 129:339–75 [Google Scholar]
  47. Jost JT, Nam HH, Amodio DM, Van Bavel JJ. 2014. Political neuroscience: the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Polit. Psychol. 35:3–42 [Google Scholar]
  48. Jost JT, Napier JL, Thorisdottir H. et al. 2007. Are needs to manage uncertainty and threat associated with political conservatism or ideological extremity?. Pers. Soc. Psychol. Bull. 33:989–1007 [Google Scholar]
  49. Kahn ME. 2007. Do greens drive Hummers or hybrids? Environmental ideology as a determinant of consumer choice. J. Environ. Econ. Manag. 54:129–45 [Google Scholar]
  50. Kanai R, Feilden T, Firth C, Rees G. 2011. Political orientations are correlated with brain structure in young adults. Curr. Biol. 21:677–80 [Google Scholar]
  51. Kelly-Woessner A, Woessner M. 2008. Conflict in the classroom: considering the effects of partisan difference on political education. J. Polit. Sci. Educ. 4:265–85 [Google Scholar]
  52. Klofstad CA. 2016. Candidate voice pitch influences election outcomes. Polit. Psychol. In press
  53. Lakoff G. 2002. Moral Politics: How Liberals and Conservatives Think Chicago: Univ. Chicago Press
  54. Lane RE. 1962. Political Ideology: Why the American Common Man Believes What He Does New York: Free Press of Glencoe
  55. Lockyer A, Hatemi PK. 2014. Resolving the difference between evolutionary antecedents of political attitudes and sources of human variation. Can. J. Polit. Sci./Rev. Can. Sci. Polit 47:549–68 [Google Scholar]
  56. Lodge M, Hamill R. 1986. A partisan schema for political information processing. Am. Polit. Sci. Rev. 80:505–19 [Google Scholar]
  57. Lodge M, Taber CS. 2005. The automaticity of affect for political leaders, groups, and issues: an experimental test of the hot cognition hypothesis. Polit. Psychol. 26:455–82 [Google Scholar]
  58. Lord CG, Ross L, Lepper MR. 1979. Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: the effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 37:2098 [Google Scholar]
  59. Lumsden CJ, Wilson EO. 1981. Genes, Mind, and Culture: The Coevolutionary Process Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univ. Press428
  60. Luo S, Klohnen EC. 2005. Assortative mating and marital quality in newlyweds: a couple-centered approach. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 88:304–26 [Google Scholar]
  61. Luo S, Zhang G. 2009. What leads to romantic attraction: similarity, reciprocity, security, or beauty? Evidence from a speed-dating study. J. Pers. 77:933–64 [Google Scholar]
  62. Martin NG, Eaves LJ, Heath AC. et al. 1986. Transmission of social attitudes. PNAS 83:4364–68 [Google Scholar]
  63. Mayhew DR. 1991. Divided We Govern New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press
  64. McAdams DP, Albaugh M, Farber E. et al. 2008. Family metaphors and moral intuitions: how conservatives and liberals narrate their lives. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 95:978 [Google Scholar]
  65. McDermott R, Hatemi PK. 2013. Political ecology: on the mutual formation of biology and culture. Polit. Psychol. 35:111–27 [Google Scholar]
  66. McDermott R, Tingley D, Hatemi PK. 2014. Assortative mating on ideology could operate through olfactory cues. Am. J. Polit. Sci. 58:997–1005 [Google Scholar]
  67. Miller JD, Scott EC, Okamoto S. 2006. Public acceptance of evolution. Science 313:765–66 [Google Scholar]
  68. Mondak JJ. 2010. Personality and the Foundations of Political Behavior New York: Cambridge Univ. Press
  69. Motyl M, Iyer R, Oishi S. et al. 2014. How ideological migration geographically segregates groups. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 51:1–14 [Google Scholar]
  70. Mutz DC. 2006. Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative Versus Participatory Democracy Cambridge/New York: Cambridge Univ. Press. xi171
  71. Narvaez D, Getz I, Rest JR, Thoma SJ. 1999. Individual moral judgment and cultural ideologies. Dev. Psychol. 35:478 [Google Scholar]
  72. Niederdeppe J, Shapiro MA, Kim HK. et al. 2014. Narrative persuasion, causality, complex integration, and support for obesity policy. Health Commun. 29:431–44 [Google Scholar]
  73. Nisbet EC, Cooper KE, Garrett RK. 2015. The partisan brain: how dissonant science messages lead conservatives and liberals to (dis)trust science. Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci. 658:36–66 [Google Scholar]
  74. Oxley DR, Smith KB, Alford JR. et al. 2008. Political attitudes vary with physiological traits. Science 321:1667–70 [Google Scholar]
  75. Posner S, Baker L, Heath A, Martin N. 1996. Social contact, social attitudes, and twin similarity. Behav. Genet. 26:123–33 [Google Scholar]
  76. Raaijmakers QA, Verbogt TF, Vollebergh WA. 1998. Moral reasoning and political beliefs of Dutch adolescents and young adults. J. Soc. Issues 54:531–46 [Google Scholar]
  77. Renshon J, Lee JJ, Tingley D. 2014. Physiological arousal and political beliefs. Polit. Psychol. 36:569–85 [Google Scholar]
  78. Ridley M. 1993. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature New York: Penguin Books
  79. Robinson MD, Cassidy DM, Boyd RL, Fetterman AK. 2015. The politics of time: conservatives differentially reference the past and liberals differentially reference the future. J. Appl. Soc. Psychol. 47:391–99 [Google Scholar]
  80. Rubinson R. 1986. Class formation, politics, and institutions: schooling in the United States. Am. J. Sociol. 92:519–48 [Google Scholar]
  81. Rushton JP, Littlefield CH, Lumsden CJ. 1986. Gene-culture coevolution of complex social behavior: human altruism and mate choice. PNAS 83:7340–43 [Google Scholar]
  82. Schreiber D, Fonzo G, Simmons AN. et al. 2013. Red brain, blue brain: evaluative processes differ in Democrats and Republicans. PLOS ONE 8:e52970 [Google Scholar]
  83. Shapiro RY, Bloch-Elkon Y. 2008. Do the facts speak for themselves? Partisan disagreement as a challenge to democratic competence. Crit. Rev. 20:115–39 [Google Scholar]
  84. Shermer M. 2006. The political brain. Sci. Am. 295:36 [Google Scholar]
  85. Shin ME, McCarthy WJ. 2013. The association between county political inclination and obesity: results from the 2012 presidential election in the United States. Prev. Med. 57:721–24 [Google Scholar]
  86. Shook NJ, Fazio RH. 2009. Political ideology, exploration of novel stimuli, and attitude formation. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol. 45:995–98 [Google Scholar]
  87. Smith KB, Oxley D, Hibbing MV. et al. 2011. Disgust sensitivity and the neurophysiology of left-right political orientations. PLOS ONE 6:e25552 [Google Scholar]
  88. Sparks P, Durkin K. 1987. Moral reasoning and political orientation: the context sensitivity of individual rights and democratic principles. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 52:931 [Google Scholar]
  89. Stephens-Davidowitz S. 2015. Talking red state blues. SundayReview. N. Y. TimesJune 7
  90. Stoker L, Jennings KM. 2006. Political similarity and influence between husbands and wives. The Social Logic of Politics A Zuckerman 421–23 Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press [Google Scholar]
  91. Tajfel H. 2010. Social Identity and Intergroup Relations Cambridge, UK: Cambridge Univ. Press
  92. Tetlock PE, Vieider FM, Patil SV, Grant AM. 2013. Accountability and ideology: when left looks right and right looks left. Organ. Behav. Hum. Decis. Process. 122:22–35 [Google Scholar]
  93. van Hiel A, Kossowska M, Mervielde I. 2000. The relationship between Openness to Experience and political ideology. Pers. Individ. Differ. 28:741–51 [Google Scholar]
  94. Verhulst B, Eaves LJ, Hatemi PK. 2012. Correlation not causation: the relationship between personality traits and political ideologies. Am. J. Polit. Sci. 56:34–51 [Google Scholar]
  95. Vigil JM. 2010. Political leanings vary with facial expression processing and psychosocial functioning. Group Process. Intergroup Relat. 13:547–58 [Google Scholar]
  96. Watson D, Klohnen EC, Casillas A. et al. 2004. Match makers and deal breakers: analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. J. Pers. 72:1029–68 [Google Scholar]
  97. Weissflog M, Choma BL, Dywan J. et al. 2013. The political (and physiological) divide: political orientation, performance monitoring, and the anterior cingulate response. Soc. Neurosci. 8:434–47 [Google Scholar]
  98. Westen D, Blagov PS, Harenski K. et al. 2006. Neural bases of motivated reasoning: an fMRI study of emotional constraints on partisan political judgment in the 2004 U.S. presidential election. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 18:1947–58 [Google Scholar]
  99. Wilson GD. 1990. Ideology and humor preferences. Int. Polit. Sci. Rev. 11:461–72 [Google Scholar]
  100. Zamboni G, Gozzi M, Krueger F. et al. 2009. Individualism, conservatism, and radicalism as criteria for processing political beliefs: a parametric fMRI study. Soc. Neurosci. 4:367–83 [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-103113-034929
Loading
/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-polisci-103113-034929
Loading

Data & Media loading...

Supplemental Material

Supplementary Data

  • Article Type: Review Article
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a Success
Invalid data
An Error Occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error