Liberal Political Orientation Research Articles

The 4D Model of American Political Conservatism: Disgust, Disorder Aversion, Deontology, and (Social) Dominance

Over the decades, numerous researchers have identified psychological predictors of conservative and liberal political orientation. However, most research teams have focused on a single predictor at a time, occasionally two. Moreover, most researchers have tended to stay within the theoretical and methodological confines of their subdiscipline (e.g., social psychology vs. personality psychology). Here, we review and integrate evidence across different subdisciplines to propose a constellation of four psychological constructs (disgust sensitivity, preference for order, deontological morality, and social dominance orientation) that, working together, form a more nuanced and fine-grained account of why people are attracted to different ends of the political spectrum. In doing so, we demonstrate the usefulness of moving beyond operationalizing political orientation in a single-dimensional (left-to-right) manner. We suggest that the proposed “4D Model” represents an incremental advance that makes more specific predictions about who will be attracted to which strands of political conservatism.

Is intellectual humility polarized too? A systematic examination of intellectual humility, political orientation, and strength of political belief

ABSTRACT Intellectual humility (IH) appears to offer one solution to political hostility. However, research on how IH associates with political orientation and the strength of their political belief is mixed, leaving open the possibility of two potential confounds in research on the benefits of intellectual humility: people who are high in intellectual humility might have different ideological beliefs or might be less polarized than those who are lower in intellectual humility. In the current research, we address this concern in a large, pre-registered, and systematic analysis of nine samples (N = 3,248). We find that IH is generally unassociated with the strength of people’s political belief but is reliably associated with a more liberal political orientation. We discuss implications of these findings for research in this domain.

When Firms Continue Doing Business in Aggressor Nations: A Refined Moral Decoupling Perspective on Consumer Response

Russia's invasion of Ukraine prompted many Western companies to pull out of the aggressor country. This study examines why and when consumers purchase from companies that choose to sustain operations in Russia. This study advances a refined moral decoupling model where effects of transgression relevance on purchase intention are channeled not only through judgments of performance and morality, but additionally through judgment of social responsibility. Results of an empirical study with four German companies and a sample of German consumers indicate that the relevance of a company's transgression influences consumer purchase intention through judgments of social responsibility and morality. This remains stable regardless of individual differences in moral decoupling. However, judgments of performance mediate a transgression's effects on purchase intention only with individuals who are less prone to decoupling. Effects of a company's perceived social responsibility on purchase intention are weaker with the politically more liberal than with the more conservative, whereas effects of morality are enhanced by a more liberal political orientation and the strength of a person's moral identity. These findings aid researchers and practitioners by advancing a refined moral decoupling framework that has greater relevance in the context of political conflict and war.

Anticipatory solastalgia in the Anthropocene: Climate change as a source of future-oriented distress about environmental change

When people feel distress about changes to their environment, they are said to be experiencing solastalgia. In the context of rising concern about climate change, I examined whether people endorse an anticipatory form of solastalgia: current distress about expected future changes to the environment. I reworded the Brief Solastalgia Scale to examine experiences of anticipatory solastalgia in the United Kingdom (n = 509) and United States (n = 493). The resulting Anticipatory Solastalgia Scale performed well, and correlational analyses show that younger people and women experience heightened anticipatory solastalgia in the US sample (but not the UK sample). In both samples, anticipatory solastalgia was higher among those with a liberal political orientation, those who expected more significant impacts of climate change to their environment, and those reporting more intense negative emotions about climate change. These findings support the existence of anticipatory solastalgia and further highlight the emotional toll of expected environmental loss and decline.

Endorsement of Critical Social Justice and Privilege: Heterosexual and Cisgender Privilege Awareness Among Social Work Students in the US

ABSTRACT Despite its central role in social work practice and education, little is known about how social justice is operationalized within the discipline. One aspect that may shed light on how the field engages the construct of social justice is through understanding more about recognition of privilege. This study examines how demographic differences, psychosocial predictors, and social work program variables may be related to increased levels of heterosexual and cisgender privilege awareness among social work students. In the heterosexual privilege model (N = 585), increased privilege awareness was associated with identifying as a cisgender woman, a more liberal political orientation, completing a course on power, privilege, and oppression, a critical endorsement of social justice, and being a 2-year MSW or doctoral student. In the cisgender privilege model (N = 758), predictors of increased privilege awareness included identifying as a cisgender woman, identifying as gay, a more liberal political orientation, completing a course on power, privilege, and oppression, a critical endorsement of social justice, and being a 2-year MSW or doctoral student. The findings demonstrate the importance of understanding social justice from a critical perspective and for educators to effectively communicate the connections between social justice and social work practice. Effective strategies to do this are discussed.

COVID-19 vaccine intention: Prospective and concurrent tests of a disposition-belief-motivation framework.

The present study tested a novel integration of prospective and concurrent associations of demographic factors, traits, political orientation, coping strategies, infection and preventive beliefs, preventive behaviors, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) symptoms, exposure, and viral testing with COVID-19 vaccine intention. The preregistered study used a stratified online U.S. sample (N = 500). Three assessments were aligned with (a) "15 days to slow the spread" in March 2020, (b) the first mortality surge in April/May 2020, and (c) the vaccine authorization and major case/mortality surge during December 2020 and January 2021. Consistent with contemporaneous polling in December 2020, 66.4% of participants indicated they intended to receive an approved vaccine. Allowing for covarying interrelations, path modeling showed direct associations of greater education (β = .11, p < .01), the absence of child(ren) in the household (β = -.14, p < .001), more liberal political orientation (β = -.17, p < .001), stronger concurrent perceived norms for preventive behaviors (β = .23, p < .001), and more frequent concurrent mask wearing (β = .23, p < .001) with stronger vaccine intention. Prospective and concurrent trait, coping strategy, and sickness experience measures were not associated with intention. The close alignment of assessments with the public health timeline and the prospective and concurrent design provide needed clarity for the effects of stable demographic and dispositional factors (educational, parental, ideological) and more malleable preventive beliefs and behaviors, indicating potentially fruitful pathways to bolster novel vaccine intention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Теория моральных оснований: современный взгляд на психологические факторы политических убеждений

&lt;p style="text-align: justify;"&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Objective. &lt;/strong&gt;The research is aimed at analyzing of the main achievements of Moral Foundations Theory in the study of problems of political psychology, as well as at reviewing its criticism and limitations.&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;In recent years, the problem of the psychological origins of political orientations and views has attracted considerable attention of researchers, due to the practical significance of predicting election results and preventing the manipulation of voters' opinions in democratic countries. One of the most popular and productive modern approaches explaining the psychological factors of political orientations is Moral Foundations Theory. The article discusses the key ideas of this theory in the studies of problems of political psychology, describes the methods developed and the results achieved. Special attention is paid to criticism of Moral Foundations Theory and empirical studies demonstrating its weaknesses and limitations.&lt;br&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusions.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;The studies show that conservative or liberal political orientations, and right or left views are associated with moral foundations, but these facts are found predominantly in Western countries. This conclusion is well supported by the results of Moral Foundations Questionnaire, however, the assessment of moral foundations using content analysis shows significantly lower correlations. Moral foundations also play an important role for intergroup relations, demonstrating associations with tolerance towards various groups and support for a hard or peaceful foreign policy. The prospects for further research within this approach include the improvement of instruments, the expansion of research in different cultures and a more careful consideration of the context in which the consequences of moral foundations are investigated.&lt;/p&gt;

Accuracy-sensitisation promotes the sharing of pro- (but not anti-) vaccine information

Objective This study investigated (i) factors predicting the seeking and sharing of vaccinerelated information, and (ii) the effect of an accuracy-sensitisation prime on sharing intentions. Design:This was a preregistered online survey with 213 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (who were exposed to an accuracy-sensitisation prime) or a control group. Design This was a preregistered online survey with 213 participants. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (who were exposed to an accuracy-sensitisation prime) or a control group. Main Outcome Measures Measures included decision-making style, COVID-19 anxiety, and percentages of pro and anti-vaccine friends. We also measured preferences to seek pro or anti-vaccine-related information and sharing intentions with respect to this information. Results Compared with those seeking both pro and anti-vaccine information, participants seeking only pro-vaccine information had lower hypervigilance and buck-passing and higher COVID-19 anxiety. The likelihood of sharing anti-vaccine information was positively predicted by the percentage of one’s anti-vaccine friends, the size of one’s social network, and conservative political orientation. Conversely, the likelihood of sharing pro-vaccine information was positively predicted by the percentage of one’s pro-vaccine friends, and liberal political orientation. Participants sensitised to accuracy were significantly more likely to share provaccine information; however, accuracy-sensitisation had no effect on anti-vaccine information sharing. Conclusions Individuals who seek anti-vaccine information have a tendency towards disorganised and impulsive decision-making. Accuracy-sensitisation may prime people to internalise a norm promoting truth-sharing.

Determinants of escape from echo chambers: The predictive power of political orientation, social media use, and demographics

This study aims to understand the determinants of escape from echo chambers. Social media users can control the content to which they are exposed by confining their contacts to like-minded individuals. The resulting echo chamber effect can reinforce existing views and discourage rational discussion. We conducted a survey with a representative sample of 1969 respondents in 2020. Contrary to common expectation, a liberal political orientation was insignificant in predicting reference to differing views, but political partisanship, media trust, time spent on social media, education levels, and gender were significant. Those who spent more time on social media and had lower trust in media were found to refer to other views more frequently and were less susceptible to the echo chamber effect. The results of this study suggest that open-mindedness, independence, critical scepticism, and social activeness are significant resources for one to escape from the echo chamber.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Associated Factors among People with HIV in the United States: Findings from a National Survey.

Introduction: Scaling up vaccination against COVID-19 is central to controlling the COVID-19 epidemic in the United States. Several vaccines are now approved for the prevention of COVID-19, but public concerns over safety and efficacy have heightened distrust and vaccine hesitancy. This is particularly concerning among people with HIV (PWH) who may be vulnerable to more severe COVID-19 disease. Here, we aimed to identify and understand COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a sample of PWH in the U.S. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional online survey among PWH in the U.S. between 6 December 2020 and 8 January 2021. Measures included demographics, participants’ HIV and health-related attributes, COVID-19 history and experiences, COVID-19 vaccine-related concerns, and standardized measures of attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines. Multivariate linear regression was used to identify factors associated with vaccine hesitancy in this sample. Results: Among the 1030 respondents, most were male (89.7%), White (66.0%), and identified as gay or lesbian (84.5%). Participants’ mean time living with HIV was 17.0 years (standard deviation (SD) = 11.1). The mean score for vaccine hesitancy was 1.5 (SD = 0.5; range: 1–5); 935 participants (90.8%) had a score greater than 1.0, indicating most participants had some degree of vaccine hesitancy. The final multivariate linear regression showed that greater vaccine hesitancy was associated with being Black (b = 0.149, p = 0.005), single (b = 0.070, p = 0.018), politically conservative (b = 0.157, p = 0.010), “anti-vaxxer” (b = 1.791, p < 0.001), concern about side effects (b = 0.226, p < 0.001), concern about safety (b = 0.260, p < 0.001), and being worried that the vaccine will not be effective (b = 0.169, p = 0.008) and they were being experimented on (b = 0.287, p < 0.001). Participants who were male White (b = −0.093, p = 0.008) and university graduates (b = −0.093, p < 0.001) and had a CD4 count of 200 cells/mm3 (b = −0.082, p = 0.048) and a liberal political orientation (b = −0.131, p < 0.001) were associated with lower vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions: Our findings provide important insights regarding COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among PWH. Further efforts are required to understand how various social, political, and psychological factors contribute to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among key populations.

Poor Air Quality during Wildfires Related to Support for Public Safety Power Shutoffs

Millions of Americans experienced impacts from the 2020 wildfire season, including unhealthy air quality from smoke. We examine how exposure to poor air quality during wildfires relates to public opinion toward Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPSs). PSPSs have been increasingly deployed in the Western U.S. during extreme wildfire conditions to reduce ignition risk from power equipment by de-energizing sections of the electrical grid, potentially leaving impacted areas without electricity for multiple days. We surveyed Oregon residents (n = 1,308), a state where few PSPSs have been deployed, and found that a majority of respondents supported PSPSs, and that poorer air quality during wildfires, recorded from monitoring stations proximal to respondents, was related to increased support for PSPSs. We also found that females and those with liberal political orientations were more supportive of PSPSs. This research has implications for utilities, emergency managers, and policymakers as they consider deployment of PSPSs to mitigate wildfire.

Understanding Perceptions of Health Risk and Behavioral Responses to Air Pollution in the State of Utah (USA)

Poor air quality in Utah creates an array of economic, environmental, and health-related impacts that merit investigation and informed political responses. Air pollution is known to cause a variety of health problems, ranging from increased rates of asthma to cardiovascular and lung disease. Our research investigates the extent of Utahn’s understanding of the health risks associated with long-term and short-term impacts of air quality. To assess the degree to which Utahn’s perceive the health risks of air pollution, we performed an ordinal logistic regression analysis using responses to the Utah Air Quality Risk and Behavioral Action Survey, a representative panel survey administered between November 2018 and January 2020 (n = 1160), to determine how socioeconomic status impacts risk perception. Socioeconomic status is not a predictor of perceiving air’s short-term risks to health. Those with more conservative political orientation, as well as those with higher religiosity scores, were less likely than those with more liberal political orientation or those with lower religiosity scores to strongly agree that air pollution poses short-term health risks. We find that for short-term health risks from air pollution, Utahns in the middle-income category are more likely than those in the low-income category to strongly agree that air pollution poses long-term health risks. In addition, those with more conservative political orientation were less likely than those with more liberal political orientation to strongly agree that air pollution poses long-term health risks.

Liberal Political Orientation Strengthens the Positive Relationship between Religiosity and Support of Restrictive Bathroom Legislation

Political orientation and some aspects of religiosity (e.g., religious fundamentalism) are associated with support for legislative initiatives restricting access to public bathrooms and other facilities (i.e., bathroom bills), but researchers have yet to examine the unique ways that elements of religiosity interact with political ideals to shape voting behaviors on bathroom legislation. Our online study utilized a correlational, cross-sectional survey design. We asked 263 Mechanical Turk participants to complete measures of political orientation, religiosity (i.e., frequency of religious practices), inclusive and exclusive religious ideology, and attitudes of support or opposition to restrictive bathroom legislation. Data were collected in April, 2018. We found that participants perceived being exposed to significantly more inclusive than exclusive religious ideology, but only exclusive ideology significantly predicted support for restrictive bathroom legislation. We also found that, as predicted, political orientation moderated the relationship between religiosity and support for restrictive bathroom legislation. Religiosity predicted more support for restrictive bathroom legislation in general, but this association was stronger among liberals than it was among conservatives. The present study is one of the first to focus on the more complex dynamics of political orientation and religiosity and how they may shape restrictive bathroom legislation. Results deepen current research on bathroom legislation voting patterns. Despite their general failure to pass into law, bathroom regulations increase distress among transgender and nonbinary people. Better understanding motivations behind voters’ support for restrictive bathroom laws may strengthen advocacy efforts against them.

Predictors of the intention to receive a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

BackgroundIt is imperative to understand the predictors of vaccine hesitancy for current and future pandemics.MethodsA representative sample (age, race & gender) of 1054 US adults was collected in October 2020 to examine the predictors of vaccine hesitancy. Participants were asked several questions including their intention to receive a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.ResultsPredictors significantly associated with a greater intention to receive a COVID-19 vaccine included greater perceived feelings of vulnerability to COVID-19, having received a flu vaccination at the time the question was asked, more liberal political orientation, non-Black race, male gender, and a lower naturalness bias.ConclusionsVaccines are essential for mitigating current and future pandemics. Multiple strategies are important in encouraging people to be vaccinated and the predictors highlighted here and elsewhere are likely to be useful targets.

Beyond Openness to Experience and Conscientiousness: Testing links between lower-level personality traits and American political orientation.

Research has consistently revealed positive correlations between political liberalism and Openness to Experience, and between conservatism and Conscientiousness. Most of this research has made use of domain-level models of the Big Five personality traits. Recent work suggests, however, that each Big Five trait domain can be divided into distinct aspects or facets, which offer more nuanced characterizations of each trait. Across four studies (Ns ranging from 1,123 to 116,406), the present research examined the degree to which distinct lower-level traits would be associated with meaningful differences in political orientation. United States residents completed two different hierarchical Big Five personality measures (the Big Five Aspect Scales and the Big Five Inventory-2), as well as a range of measures of political orientation. Across both personality measures, liberal political orientation showed distinct positive associations with the lower-level traits Openness/Aesthetic Sensitivity, Intellect/Intellectual Curiosity, Compassion, and Withdrawal/Depression, as well as distinct negative associations with Orderliness/Organization, Politeness, and Assertiveness. By examining individual differences at a higher level of granularity, these data provide insight into specific motivations that predispose individuals toward different ends of the political spectrum.

Educational Preferences Among Conservatives and Liberals in the United States: A Quantitative Survey Study

The purpose of this quantitative survey research study was to explore educational preferences among individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation and of both genders in the United States of America with a 13-questionnaire survey that includes questions relating to different educational preferences. The literature review has revealed previously conducted research study that suggest that individuals of conservative and liberal political orientation may have psychological differences in the domain of emotions, attention, self-control, and cognition. However, the literature review did not reveal research studies that explored educational preferences between individuals with conservative and liberal political orientation in the United States. The results suggest that statistically significant difference exists in the preference to study abroad (&amp;chi; &amp;sup2; (1, N = 200) = 3.739, p = 0.05). Additional differences, but without a statistically significant differences, were found in the preferences to read fiction and non-fiction genre, perform physically and non-physically challenging activities, perform reading and written assignments, and study in instructional settings where ration between the teachers and technology is uneven.

Differentiating between pure patriots and nationalistic patriots: A model of national attachment profiles and their socio-political attitudes

Patriotism and nationalism represent distinct forms of national attachment that often predict divergent attitudes. However, various combinations of high/low patriotism and nationalism might indicate different types of national attachment with distinct implications for socio-political attitudes. Applying Latent Profile Analysis to a large national sample of New Zealanders (N = 13,936), we identified seven unique national attachment profiles. Among these profiles were pure patriots (10.6%) who exhibited high patriotism but low nationalism, whereas nationalistic patriots (33.1%) were equally patriotic but expressed mid-to-high levels of nationalism. Membership in profiles low in national attachment was uncommon, and we found no evidence of a high nationalism, low patriotism profile. In terms of the correlates of profile membership, pure patriots had the most positive attitudes toward immigrants, while low attachment profiles expressed particularly liberal political orientations and voting intentions. Accordingly, these analyses identify distinct profiles of citizens with important implications for social and political attitudes.

Reporting Hate Comments: Investigating the Effects of Deviance Characteristics, Neutralization Strategies, and Users’ Moral Orientation

Norm violations in comments on social networking sites have raised concerns about the climate of political discourse. In this article, we analyze how comment characteristics and neutralization techniques in potential hate speech comments influence users’ ascription of deviance by reporting negative comments about refugees. We focus on the type of norm violation, subtlety, type of victim, and justifications as comment characteristics. Moreover, we examine the influence of descriptive and injunctive norms on reporting behavior of potential hate comments. Here, we focus on individual’s moral orientation and the perceived level of peer deviance. Results of an online survey ( n = 457) that included a choice-based conjoint design suggest that incitements for violence and direct offenses are more likely to be reported than other types of norm violation and indirect offenses. Moral foundations, indicative of liberal political orientations, fostered reporting behavior, but conservative orientations reduced reporting behavior.

Relationship of people’s sources of health information and political ideology with acceptance of conspiratorial beliefs about vaccines

BackgroundConspiracies about vaccination are prevalent. We assessed how the health information sources people rely upon and their political ideologies are associated with acceptance of vaccine conspiracies. MethodsOnline survey (N = 599) on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk crowdsource platform. Hypotheses were tested via structural equation modeling. ResultsAcceptance of vaccine conspiracy beliefs was associated positively with greater reliance on social media for health information (coef. = 0.42, p < .001), inversely related to use of medical websites (coef. = −0.21, p < .001), and not significantly related to use of providers for health information (coef. = −0.13, p = .061). In addition, liberal political orientation was negatively associated with acceptance of vaccine conspiracies (coef. = −0.29, p < .001). ConclusionsAn understanding of vaccine conspiracy acceptance requires a consideration of people’s health information sources. The greater susceptibility of political conservatives to conspiracy beliefs extends to the topic of vaccination.

News Users on Facebook: Interaction Strategies on the Pages of El Paìs, la Repubblica, Le Monde, and The Guardian

ABSTRACTThe aim of this paper is to study journalistic production and how news users interact with it. More specifically, the approach adopted is an attempt to bridge the gap between the analysis of how news outlets disseminate their news on social media platforms, and that relating to the use of such news within social contexts. To achieve this twofold objective, the content published on Facebook, as well as the interactions of users of four newspapers published in Spain (El Paìs), Italy (la Repubblica), France (Le Monde), and the UK (The Guardian), were analyzed during a period of six months (1 November 2016 – 30 April 2017). The newspapers were selected as quality daily newspapers, in view of their liberal or center-left political orientation, and their common editorial experience, resulting from the production of special issues. The analysis highlights a widespread trend towards light engagement. These readings are supported not only by the data on various interaction practices (likes, sharing, and commenting), but also by those that describe the use of Reactions – or rather, the chance to go beyond the simple Like.