Ideological Beliefs Research Articles

Ideological prejudice is stronger in ideological extremists (vs. moderates)

The agency–beliefs–communion (ABC) model and worldview conflict research show that people rate groups as more moral and likable if they rate their ideology as more similar to the ideology of the self. This paper refers to this effect as ideological prejudice. There is a debate whether ideology moderates the effect size of ideological prejudice. Through three observational studies ( NS1 = 700, NS2 = 974, NS3 = 633), this paper contributes to this debate in three ways. First and primarily, the paper shows that ideological prejudice is stronger in conservatives and progressives compared to people with more moderate ideological beliefs. Second, stronger ideological prejudice in ideological extremists (vs. moderates) holds when controlling for stronger ingroup favoritism in ideological extremists (vs. moderates). And third, the paper suggests that higher importance of own ideology in ideological extremists (vs. moderates) may explain why ideological prejudice is stronger in ideological extremists (vs. moderates). These findings develop a part of the ABC model of stereotypes, contribute to worldview conflict research, and help to explain why ideological polarization is divisive.

Betekenis en betekeniskonstruksie in beeldkommunikasie

IN this article the author deals with certain arguments by the art philosopher historian Ernst Gombrich on the perception of images. The central argument is that the human being does not perceive (look at) reality with an innocent eye, but his outlook on life, cultural background and ideological beliefs "colour" his perception and interpretation of images. In the second part of the article he formulates a model which can be used in empirical research to determine the meaning which a respondent attaches to an image (images), as well as that which influences the final interpretation he makes.. This model is based on an underlying observational strategy and a search for and selection of sources of meaning.

Covid-19 Containment Communication in Nigeria: Do Kari-Kasa Community Still Believe ‘the Media are of the Devil’?

The Covid-19 pandemic created an atmosphere of global uncertainty that challenged established assumptions and ways of life. Amid the uncertainty, most people turned to mass and social media for updates, direction and, especially during lockdowns, companionship. An earlier study of the Kari-kasa community shows their total disdain for modernity including the mass media: radio, television and newspaper. The question then arises: was the Kari-kasa able to sustain this disdain during a pandemic that turned most people to the media? To what extent did the community uphold its aversion to modernity in the face of a crippling pandemic? Employing classical ethnographic field methods of focus group discussion (FGD), observation, in-depth and key informant interviews, this study established a reasonable level of Covid-19 awareness among the Kari-kasa members, some of whom seemed to be modifying their belief system to conform to social pressure. They largely declined Covid-19 safety rules believing it was not obligatory. The nature of their information-seeking behavior breeds information disorder and infodemic within their micro-community. The Kari-kasa appeared to be left behind in government efforts on Covid-19 containment communication interventions. It is therefore recommended that specific behavior change communication intervention be targeted at conservative marginal and hidden communities such as Kari-kasa just like it is for the Amish. Also, since Kari-kasa members exhibit ideological belief rather than behavioral belief explained in theory, behavior change interventions targeted at such groups should pay attention to this influential factor for the intervention to be compatible with their belief.

The Silver Sword and the New Windmill Series: The Legacy of Ian and Anne Serraillier

Ian Serraillier is best remembered for his children’s book, The Silver Sword, first published in 1956. However, along with his wife Anne, he was also instrumental in creating The New Windmill Series, an imprint of Heinemann Educational Books, and one of the first collections of teenage fiction aimed for the education market. This article discusses the way in which Serraillier’s ideological beliefs, rooted in his Quaker faith, can be traced not only through his nuanced depiction of children displaced by war in The Silver Sword, but also in his objectives for the New Windmill list. It explores the Serrailliers’ progressive approach to the provision of reading material for young people moving towards adulthood, and their early understanding of the need to broach the contested and complex boundaries between children’s and adults’ fiction. The New Windmill Series was created in 1949 and the Serrailliers remained the list’s editors and driving force for over thirty years, throughout a period of great sociological and political change. Both The Silver Sword and the books selected for The New Windmill list reflect the way in which attitudes towards the sharing of difficult truths and challenging ideas with this audience changed for ever during this time, due in no small part to the work of visionary authors and editors such as the Serrailliers.

A Brief Analysis on Nationalism

What does it mean by a “nation” or a “nation-state” when scholars address them, and in what ways are they imagined? How is national solidarity imaginarily achieved? By default, linguists and political theorists assumed the nation to be a social construct, an entity imagined by a commune of people sharing some kinship or common ideological beliefs. For these people, they don't need to be bound to some existing connections such as vernacular connotations; especially from Benedict Anderson’s perspective, today’s modern world relies upon an unfailing realm wherein members feel a “horizontal” comradeship with each other. In all, this paper furthers Anderson’s argument to show the powerful, upper class might use the concept of nation to safeguard their dominating social status, and thereby become an unshakable, solidified existence in the social world. To prove the aforementioned claim, it first recaps Anderson’s core argument, “the nation does not exist, it is imagined”. Most people may consider that they reside in the same nation because of their biological inheritance, as they and people alike look very similar since, they were born. As a result, a primitive perception of a nation is born out of a community united by blood. Yet with the advancement of human civilization, the different nations loosened connections with each other through immigration and active interpenetration: warfare, cross-regional marketing, and chaos and rebellions. “No more arresting emblems of the modern culture of nationalism exist than cenotaphs and tombs of Unknown Soldiers. The public ceremonial reverence accorded these monuments precisely because they are either deliberately empty or no one knows who lies inside them, has no true precedents in earlier times.” (Benedict Anderson p.1) Ultimately, it shows people create noumenal evidence to show that they are in a nation that has been existing for a long time, nevertheless, the unreality of these substances may induce more existential problems.

"Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems": Correction to Brandt and Morgan (2022).

Reports an error in "Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems" by Mark J. Brandt and G. Scott Morgan (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2022[Sep], Vol 123[3], 621-635). In the article (https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000404), the third sentence in the second paragraph of the Participants and Procedure section should appear instead as follows: Over this period, participants complete two surveys per month (12 waves in total). Each survey is open for approximately 2 weeks. Participants can complete the survey at any point during the 2 week period. The online version of this article has been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2022-19898-001.) Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Exporting Capitalism: Private Enterprise and US Foreign Policy

In the post-World War II era, the United States took a key role in promoting economic development in the global South. When formulating policies and mapping out development strategies, the United States has consistently emphasized the key role of the private sector. In US policymakers’ view, development through private sector investment offered the best path to economic reform. Ethan B. Kapstein provides a magisterial overview of US efforts to promote development in Taiwan, South Korea, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Iraq, and Afghanistan in ‘Exporting Capitalism’. Throughout, Kapstein emphasizes the role of ideological beliefs that drove US policymakers to emphasize private sector development. Kapstein argues that ideological beliefs among US policymakers pointed to the role of private enterprise as key to economic development. These beliefs emphasized the notion that entrepreneurial spirit and the development of domestic enterprises, combined with large-scale private investment from abroad would transform economies of developing countries around the world and thus represent best-practice standards to be exported to other states. These beliefs played a fundamental role in shaping the views of US officials concerning effective development strategies. In five chapters, Kapstein provides evidence for this argument through a series of case studies. These case studies show that US officials consistently pushed for private sector involvement and were reluctant to use direct transfers of funds, as through foreign aid. Efforts to rely on private sector investment to stimulate development often resulted in failure. These failures stemmed both from a reluctance of the US industry to spearhead development programs, and unwillingness on the part of developing states to implement the necessary reforms that would stimulate private sector development. The track record for private sector development thus remains mixed: while Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea are success stories, this strategy failed to produce results in Latin America, Russia, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

Milyen nézetekkel korrelálnak a kétnyelvűséggel kapcsolatos tévhitek? Preskriptivizmus és asszimilációtól való félelem felnőtt nyelvtanulók között Magyarországon

It has become such a widespread notion in Europe that bilingualism is an exceptional phenomenon (Bartha, 2009, p. 145) that it also determines the way we think about languages in Hungary. Moreover, in Hungary speakers typically judge bilingualism along the lines of standard linguistic ideology, that is, “the linguistic ideological concepts and beliefs about bilingualism are still being shaped and reinterpreted in various contexts, in tandem with the standard, normative linguistic concept of bilingualism, which excludes diversity” (Bartha, 2009, p. 149, translated by me). In my study I will elaborate on this issue based on my research among 18-24-year-old language learners, and show how linguistic ideologies about bilingualism are related to beliefs about the Hungarian language. I will also discuss the role of language learning motivation. In my quantitative research (n=507) I collected beliefs on Hungarian and language learning using a questionnaire, and after principal component analysis I looked for correlations by calculating the Pearson correlation coefficients. The results show that students’ beliefs about bilingualism are related to the extent to which they were taught their first language using a prescriptive approach, and to the extent to which they themselves subscribe to prescriptivism. In addition, students’ fear of assimilation and linguistic prejudice also correlated with their beliefs about bilingualism. Thus, misconceptions about bilingualism are still fueled by the prescriptive, purist and prejudiced linguistic attitudes associated with the standard language culture that are present in Hungary. My results show that even highly motivated language learners believe that “the only natural way to become bilingual is to learn two languages in one’s family from an early age” (one of the items of the questionnaire, based on Bartha, 2009, p. 147).In my study I highlight the role of teachers in maintaining language ideologies related to bilingualism, and argue that language learning motivation research should also pay more attention to language learning beliefs, because motivation is interlinked with and inseparable from them.

Ideology-In-Activity: Indonesian EFL Teachers’ English Language Ideological Transformation During English Language Instruction

ABSTRACT Teachers’ English language ideologies play a crucial role in English language education reforms. It is important to understand how their ideologies evolve outside and inside the classroom. This paper explores how micro-level factors shape teachers’ English-only ideology, encompassing both their beliefs and their associated pedagogical practices. Adopting a Vygotskian sociocultural theory and activity theory perspective, this case-study research focuses on two Indonesian EFL teachers. Data include interviews, classroom observations, and relevant artefacts. Data analysis follows a combined genetic and activity system analytical framework. Findings revealed that when driven by a tension between their English-only ideology and the students’ varied levels of English competency, both teachers compromised to their practices, reflecting transformations in their ideology. Beyond uncovering the process of changes in EFL teachers’ English-only ideology, this paper offers a new and contingent perspective on the relationship between teachers’ ideological belief, practice, and context.

From social bloc to historical bloc: Politics, social relations and ideology in political economy

The way that the economy, politics and ideology interact to maintain stability or bring about change is a central concern for political economy. The social bloc perspective, as elaborated by Amable and Palombarini, provides a promising framework with which to address this question due to its attempt to combine an emphasis on the economic structure with a more central role for politics and ideology. This article argues, however, that the social bloc perspective still retains a rather functional understanding of these two concepts. We contend that a neo-Gramscian approach focusing on hegemonic struggles and adopting a complex conceptualisation of class can overcome these functionalist tendencies, because it perceives politics and ideology as crucial factors in the formation of social groups and the emergence and actions of social blocs. We further claim that a neo-Gramscian approach has broader applicability. To ground our claims empirically, we analyse a case which cannot be accounted for by the social bloc perspective. This is a case in which two social blocs composing different social groups with rivalling worldviews shared some meaningful ideological beliefs and cooperated politically to realise them.

Public views on the Covid-19 immunity certificate: A scoping review.

IntroductionAlready in its first implementation, the introduction of the Covid‐19 immunity certificate has generated some debate among the public. This debate might be a hindrance to the effective realization of this policy. This study aimed to systematically review published research evaluating public feeling of the Covid‐19 immunity certificate policy measure and to find which factors might influence its acceptance.MethodsWe followed the scoping review methods manual by the Joanna Briggs Institute. We included studies with no time limits that presented novel data, and no exclusions have been made based on study design. We excluded articles that presented just expert opinions.ResultsWe found and reviewed 17 articles. The included studies were conducted in two main countries (the United Kingdom and Switzerland), with the rest from Israel, Italy, Spain, Germany, Australia, Taiwan and China. Both qualitative and quantitative studies were included, and nonrepresentative samples were mostly used to explore the public feeling about the Covid‐19 immunity certification. The included studies showed that public views on immunity certification are quite contradictory and influenced by age, gender, ethnicity, political orientation and attitudes towards Covid‐19 vaccination. The topic more often addressed by the included studies was the public's views on the positive and negative implications of the Covid‐19 immunity certificate in terms of ethical, legal and behavioural consequences of this measure.ConclusionThe varying acceptance rates are notable and may partly be linked to differences in demographics, Covid‐19 concerns and ideological beliefs, as seen in other health‐related tracking policies. Moreover, dominant factors behind the (un)success of this policy are complex and entangled with the cultural and political dimensions rather than being just technical. For this reason, it is important to expand psychosocial research to better understand the concerns behind health certifications and allow planning of culturally based and ethically sound suitable strategies. This would be very relevant to increasing public approval and compliance with this public health measure.Patient or Public ContributionThis does not apply to our work as it was a review paper.

Choose your own future: the sociotechnical imaginaries of virtual reality

ABSTRACT Virtual Reality has been heralded variously as the next steppingstone in technological innovation, a utopian ‘empathy-machine’ and a dystopian addictive technology. Using critical discourse analysis, we explore the types of narratives underlying this global attention and the ideological values, beliefs and interests therein. We contribute to the critical marketing literature by demonstrating how an examination of sociotechnical imaginaries reveals the ways in which the market mediates the reception of new technologies and the kinds of worlds these technologies bring about. Through an interactive ‘choose your own adventure’ narrative, we bring these imaginaries into relief and invite readers to navigate alternative potential futures for VR. The data underpinning the narrative highlight the role of marketers and marketing in shaping our social, political and economic reality.

Shaping political orientations: testing the effect of unemployment on ideological beliefs and voting behaviour

ABSTRACT Using data from the European Social Survey we test whether a period of unemployment in Ireland shapes individuals’ core political ideological beliefs towards the left of the political spectrum and whether the experience of unemployment prompts people to vote for left-leaning parties. Results indicate that unemployment is linked with more leftward core political ideological beliefs and is associated with a tendency to vote for left-leaning parties. A central implication of our findings is that the sizeable increase in the extent of unemployment, as a consequence of the restrictions due to the COVID pandemic, may well have fundamental political ramifications influencing the political ideology and values of an unprecedented number of people. Right and centre-right parties in order to remain popular in recent times have tended to shift their policies leftward. The potential implications of the high unemployment during the recent pandemic may reinforce this trend.

Friends as mediators in study abroad contexts in Japan: negotiating stereotypical discourses about Japanese culture

ABSTRACT Upon encountering unfamiliar words or observing local practices in study abroad contexts, second language learners may discuss aspects of the target language and culture with their peers – 'non-native' friends from the same cultural background or 'natives' of the target culture. Such mediations are instrumental in elaborating understandings, but are naturally conditioned by the participants’ intercultural stances, including their appreciation of cultural similarities/differences. This study examines the interpretive work carried out by two learners of Japanese and their respective friends in reading a Japanese manga (short comics) depicting the allegedly ‘typical’ Japanese behaviour around honne, i.e. restraint in expressing one’s feelings or opinions. We observe rather different negotiation styles and different ideologies at play in their argumentations and discuss them in relation to the dynamics generated by the assumption of epistemic authority claimed by (and granted to) the native-speaker friend, vs. the more collaborative negotiation in the case of the non-native friend. The lack of a dominant authoritative source appears to generate more nuanced interpretive possibilities, enabling challenges to established and stereotypical discourses about cultural characteristics. This analysis illustrates dynamics which potentially question widely held (and equally ideological) beliefs about unqualified advantages of periods of study abroad for cultural learning.

Between-person methods provide limited insight about within-person belief systems.

Belief systems are individual-level phenomena that describe the interrelationships of the political attitudes of a person. However, the modal study of the structure of political ideologies and beliefs uses cross-sectional survey data to estimate what is central to the belief system or the dimensionality of the belief system, aggregating across many people. Cross-sectional data, however, are ill-suited to the task of studying individual-level phenomena because they contain an unobservable mixture of within-person and between-person variation. In this project, we use longitudinal datasets from the Netherlands (representative) and the United States (convenience), spanning between 6 months and 10 years, to we ask whether between-subjects methods can help us understand the within-person structure of belief systems. First, we use Bayesian STARTS models (Lüdtke et al., 2018) to assess what type of variance cross-sectional studies are likely tapping into. We find that variability in measures of ideology and political beliefs is primarily due to stable between-person differences, with relatively smaller amounts of variation due to within-person differences. Second, we estimate between-person, within-person, and cross-sectional correlations between all items in our study and find that between-person correlations are larger and in some cases differ in their direction from within-person correlations. Furthermore, cross-sectional correlations are most similar to between-person correlations. Taken together, these findings indicate that the modal study may help describe differences between people, but is ill-suited to tell us about the structure of individuals' belief systems. New methods are necessary for a complete understanding of political belief systems that clarify both between- and within-person processes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Examining Prospective Teachers' Ideological Beliefs and Preparation for Diversity

This study aims to examine prospective teachers' ideological beliefs affecting their preparation for diversity in initial teacher education (ITE). The study was designed as qualitative phenomenology around two phenomena experienced by prospective teachers in ITE. The participants determined based on the criterion and maximum variety sampling are six senior students of an ITE program. The researchers collected via individual interviews with a semi-structured interview form. In the study, the interview questions referred to political, gender, and religious ideology categories to make participants state their views more comprehensively and concretely. The data analyzed is based on conventional content analysis in which an inductive approach takes place. The codes were created from data and hierarchized in a constant comparison process. Results showed that prospective teachers have ideological beliefs. Family, school, and social circle seem to be essential factors in building these beliefs. Although the participants indicate university as a critical factor, they emphasize that ITE does not affect their ideological beliefs. In terms of preparation for diversity, the participant has promising intentions like respecting diverse individuals; teachers need to prepare for diversity, and ITE should contribute to this preparation. However, apparent and latent barriers seem to affect their preparation negatively: prospective teachers' conditional respect attitude, being neutral concerns and some latent ideological beliefs on differences, and ITE's current no effect on preparation for diversity. Lastly, suggestions for ITE and further study are provided.

Nudging Attention to Inequality

Inequality between groups in society is ubiquitous, yet there are stark ideological differences in who notices inequality and when. Relative to those keen on maintaining societal inequality (i.e., anti-egalitarians), social egalitarians are more attentive to and accurate at detecting inequality, but only when traditionally disadvantaged groups (i.e., women, poor people, racial minorities) are affected by it. The present research tests whether an informational intervention might effectively prompt attention to – and correct misperceptions of – inequality, depending on the status of the group affected. Prior to completing a pattern detection hiring task where either non-White or White job applicants were disproportionately less likely to be hired, participants (N = 2,869) were randomly assigned to an informational intervention condition where they read about racial wealth inequality in the United States or a control condition. For anti-egalitarians and egalitarians alike, the information treatment increases the tendency to report noticing bias against non-White students when such bias exists and has no impact on the tendency to mention noticing bias against White students when it exists. In addition, the information treatment has no effect on anti-egalitarian (mis)perceptions of inequality regardless of the status of the target facing bias. Moreover, we find evidence of a backfire effect on egalitarian perceptions of inequality after exposure to information about racial economic inequality; egalitarians exposed to the intervention are subsequently less accurate at detecting bias against White students when such bias is present. Our results reveal the nuances in how ideological beliefs affect interventions aimed at addressing attention to and perceptions of societal inequality.

From the past to the future: Protecting Afghanistan’s cultural heritage – progress, fears, and hopes

AbstractAfghanistan’s cultural heritage has faced extreme challenges over recent decades, experiencing the simultaneous impacts of numerous disasters such as war, the looting of museums, illegal excavations, and deliberate destruction caused by extreme ideological beliefs – the last diminishing not only Afghanistan’s but also the world’s cultural heritage. However, these incidents and experiences have also provided lessons for the protection of cultural heritage. Despite progress since 2004, the return of the Taliban and their treatment of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage during their previous regime have raised growing concerns for the country’s cultural heritage and fears of that sad history repeating itself. In this article, we examine the progress made in protecting the rights related to cultural heritage in Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, especially in relation to its protection and safeguarding age. To this end, it examines the basis of the current cultural heritage legislation, the identification and registration of heritage elements, the legal tools for regulating heritage, and how its protection is monitored and evaluated. Addressing the challenges that this process faced, it questions what responsibilities should be placed on the Taliban following their recent return to power.

Who supports #MeToo and the Kavanaugh confirmation? Exploring tolerance for sexual harassment among young adults

AbstractYoung adults have become increasingly involved in political and social movements around sexual harassment. This involvement likely reflects political identity as well ideological beliefs about sexual harassment. We examined how young adults’ ideological beliefs and political party identity are associated with their tolerance of sexual harassment, support for the #MeToo movement and the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh. Tolerance for sexual harassment was positively associated with endorsement of rape myth acceptance, hostile and benevolent sexism, and was negatively associated with feminist identity, but not associated with gender or political party identity. In contrast, political party identity played an increasingly important role in predicting support for the #MeToo movement and the confirmation of Justice Kavanaugh, such that those who strongly identify as Republican were more likely to support Justice Kavanaugh and not support the #MeToo movement. These findings suggest the #MeToo movement, and the confirmation decision are not perceived as entirely about sexual harassment but increasingly as political issues. Therefore, sexual harassment workplace or university trainings should consider addressing ideological factors. Additionally, in order for anti‐sexual harassment laws to be supported by people of all political parties, it is important to frame the issue as nonpolitical.

Subjects supposed to know, believe, and enjoy: The geopolitics of ideological transference in the Swedish begging question

This article aims to contribute to the emerging field of psychoanalytic geopolitics by introducing a conceptualization of a geopolitics of ideological transference of political knowledge and belief. This is done through an extensive theoretical application of the Lacanian- Žižekian concepts of the “subject supposed to know,” “subject supposed to believe,” and “subject supposed to enjoy” on an empirical case study. The case concerns the discourse, ideology, and politics of the Swedish state hegemony regarding its handling of the territorial presence of impoverished and excluded EU citizens with Romanian/Bulgarian passport and Roma heritage – popularly called “the beggars” – with a focus on the crisis-laden year of 2015. The government, state, and the media elevated key actors into the ideological status of subjects supposed to know how to end the “beggars’” presence in Sweden in a rational and yet caring way, thus enabling the continuous belief in the Swedish ideology of moral exceptionalism although the practical outcomes effectively hindered the EU citizens from obtaining better life conditions. It is argued that a geopolitics of transference through the application of said concepts enable us to further understand how political actors can simultaneously act cynical and idealist, which both illuminates and complicates notions of what knowledges and beliefs inform politics and political geographies in general.