Document Type
Article
Publication Date
8-2012
Publication Source
Political Psychology
Abstract
Ideology's crucial theoretical and empirical role in explaining political behavior makes it imperative that scholars understand how individuals conceptualize and apply ideological labels. The existing literature on this topic is quite limited, however, because it relies almost exclusively upon data from the 1970s and 1980s, and it does not examine how psychological factors influence conceptualizations of ideological labels. This article uses data from two original laboratory experiments to test the relative impact of four major policy dimensions on participants' evaluations of candidate ideology and to test authoritarianism's role in shaping ideological conceptualization. These analyses indicate that individuals most often define liberalism and conservatism primarily in terms of social policies closely associated with religious values, each of which invert traditional ideological orientations toward the appropriate size and role of government. The causal mechanism shaping this relationship is authoritarianism, because, I argue, the religious social policy dimension most clearly evokes the deep-seated value conflicts associated with an authoritarian view of political conflict.
Inclusive pages
531–552
ISBN/ISSN
0162-895X
Document Version
Postprint
Copyright
Copyright © 2012, John Wiley & Sons
Publisher
John Wiley & Sons
Volume
33
Issue
4
Peer Reviewed
yes
eCommons Citation
Devine, Christopher J., "Social Issues, Authoritarianism, and Ideological Conceptualization: How Policy Dimensions and Psychological Factors Influence Ideological Labeling" (2012). Political Science Faculty Publications. 96.
https://ecommons.udayton.edu/pol_fac_pub/96
Included in
American Politics Commons, Demography, Population, and Ecology Commons, Politics and Social Change Commons
Comments
The document available for download is the author's accepted manuscript, provided in compliance with the publisher's policy on self-archiving. Differences may exist between this document and the published version, which is available using the link provided. Permission documentation is on file.
Citation: Devine, Christopher J. 2012. “Social Issues, Authoritarianism, and Ideological Conceptualization: How Policy Dimensions and Psychological Factors Influence Ideological Labeling.” Political Psychology 33(4): 531-552.