Abstract
The naive social Darwinism, also called the Competitive Jungle Belief (CJB), according to the theory of the Dual-Process Motivational (DPM) model, is recognized as an expanded perceptual scheme acting as a cognitive mediator between deep individual characteristics and the area of socio-political attitudes and ideologies. This article aims to show the individual differences that can be dispositional characteristics to believe in the Competitive Jungle scheme's principles. The presented studies' main theoretical question is to find out whether the CJB bases on positive "individual resources" or rather some psychological deficits. In an extensive survey study, including four random-representative samples of adults Poles (with N ranging from 624 to 853 respondents), we tested the predictive power of the five categories of variables: 1) attachment styles; 2) Big Five personality traits; 3) Dark Triad of personality; 4) basic human values and 5) moral judgments. The results showed the psychological profile of social Darwinists as clearly dysfunctional in terms of personal life quality. They express characteristics like admiration for power and desire to dominate, pursue one's goals at all costs, exploitative attitude towards people, and hostility. On the other hand, they reveal a fearful style in close relations with others and have low self-esteem and low self-sufficiency. From the societal perspective, such beliefs make up a vision of social life that is unfavorable for building a cooperative, helpful, and relatively egalitarian society. The supreme idea that only those who do not sympathize with others and are ready to use them can be successful and survive is far from the principles of liberal democracy.
Highlights
Many researchers stress that individuals’ and social groups’ behavior are conditioned by how they perceive and understand the nature of social relations
Descriptive statistics for the measure of Competitive Jungle Belief are in the upper part of Table 1
We aimed to show people’s psychological profile believing in such principles of the competitive social jungle as "struggle for existence" or "survival of the fittest." By the term, Competitive Jungle Belief we mean a specific naive theory of the social world
Summary
Many researchers stress that individuals’ and social groups’ behavior are conditioned by how they perceive and understand the nature of social relations. The content of such "naive" theories about what people are and what we can expect from them activates specific actions against others. They can be prosocial (cooperation, helping) or anti-social (exploitation, manipulation, hurting) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. The social world view as a competitive jungle ( named naive social Darwinism) is probably the most complex and most straightforward expression of the negative vision
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