Differences In Political Ideology Research Articles

Mainstreaming immigrant integration in Labour Market Support: policy index and alternative policy frameworks

ABSTRACT In many Western European countries, governments have increasingly accepted the strategies of enhancing equality between immigrants and EU nationals in major policy domains. One of the latest trends in integration policy framework is mainstreaming – the practice of bringing the needs and priorities of vulnerable groups such as immigrants to the centre of attention in more generic policies (e.g. employment support, education) as opposed to responding to the specific concerns of these groups through separate policy interventions. To examine and categorise the scope of mainstreaming and the level of access to mainstreamed policies for various groups of immigrants, I develop a Policy Index of Mainstreaming in Labour Market Support that covers data from 2006 to 2016 across 25 EU/EEA countries. The paper explores the policy patterns revealed by the Index. It argues that while mainstreaming as a theory challenges existing integration approaches, differences in political ideology do not necessarily lead to radical institutional change. This finding contributes to the historical-institutionalist argument on policy compatibility through institutional change mechanisms.

Political Ideology and Attitudinal Ambivalence: Investigating the Role of Ideological Extremity

Are individual differences in political ideology associated with inclinations to hold more or less ambivalent attitudes? Extant research on the linear association of political ideology with attitudinal ambivalence yielded inconsistent findings. The present research tested the hypotheses (a) that the association of political ideology with attitudinal ambivalence is curvilinear with lower levels of ambivalence at both extremes of the ideological spectrum and (b) that higher political interest is associated with lower levels of attitudinal ambivalence. It used data from large and demographically diverse electoral surveys in a set of three studies (Study 1: N = 13,808; Study 2: N = 6,528; Study 3: N = 4,789) that focused on attitudes toward political candidates (Studies 1 and 2) as well as political parties (Study 3) in Germany. Overall, the results support both hypotheses even when general attitudes toward the politicians and parties are controlled in the analyses.

Reducing vaccine hesitancy by explaining vaccine science.

Vaccine hesitancy in the COVID-19 pandemic remained a problem long after mRNA vaccines became available. This may be due in part to misunderstandings about the vaccines, arising from complexities of the science involved. Two experiments, conducted on unvaccinated Americans at two periods postvaccine rollout in 2021, demonstrated that providing explanations, expressed in everyday language, and correcting known misunderstandings, reduced vaccine hesitancy compared to a no-information control group. Four explanations addressing misunderstandings about mRNA vaccine safety and effectiveness were tested in Experiment 1 (n = 3,787). Some included expository text while others included refutational text, explicitly stating and refuting the misunderstanding. Vaccine effectiveness statistics were expressed either as text or an icon array. Although all four explanations reduced vaccine hesitancy, the refutational format of those addressing vaccine safety (explaining the mRNA mechanism and mild side effects) was the most effective. These two explanations were retested individually and jointly in Experiment 2 (n = 1,476) later in the summer of 2021. Again, vaccine hesitancy was significantly reduced by all explanations despite differences in political ideology, trust, and prior attitudes. These results suggest that nontechnical explanations of critical issues in vaccine science can reduce vaccine hesitancy, especially when accompanied by refutational text. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Political Attitudes and Disease Threat: Regional Pathogen Stress Is Associated With Conservative Ideology Only for Older Individuals.

What environmental factors are associated with individual differences in political ideology, and do such associations change over time? We examine whether reductions in pathogen prevalence in U.S. states over the past 60 years are associated with reduced associations between parasite stress and conservatism. We report a positive association between infection levels and conservative ideology in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s. However, this correlation reduces from the 1980s onwards. These results suggest that the ecological influence of infectious diseases may be larger for older people who grew up (or whose parents grew up) during earlier time periods. We test this hypothesis by analyzing the political affiliation of 45,000 Facebook users, and find a positive association between self-reported political affiliation and regional pathogen stress for older (>40 years) but not younger individuals. It is concluded that the influence of environmental pathogen stress on ideology may have reduced over time.

Intergenerational transmission of left-right ideology: A question of gender and parenting style?

“Left” and “right” are common concepts when it comes to describing both political attitudes of citizens and politicians or to classifying, for example, parties on the political spectrum. But how do political ideological attitudes emerge? One central factor is political socialization, in which the family is a key socialization agent. However, existing research focuses largely on partisan preferences and how they emerge through family political socialization. Nevertheless, due to multiparty systems, this concept is less suitable in the European context. This paper therefore contributes to filling this research gap by looking at the role of the family as a political socialization agent in the emergence of political ideological attitudes. Hereby the focus is on two key research questions: what difference does the cross-gender transmission of left-right ideology make? How does the parenting style affect intergenerational transmission? These questions are examined using the Cultural Pathways to Economic Self-Sufficiency and Entrepreneurship (CUPESSE) dataset, whose structure allows for several advances on existing studies. First, it contains a high number of cases with more than 4,000 parent-child dyads, which come from a total of 11 European countries and thus allow a view beyond existing single country studies. Furthermore, it contains the classification of the parenting style by the children and thus enables analyses based on the perception of the recipients of the parenting rather than the parent self-assessment. The results of the analysis indicate that existing differences in political ideology between parents and children vary for cross-gender transmission processes. It also shows that the similarity of political ideology between parents and children is influenced by the parenting style, such as whether children experienced warmth from their parents, support in the pursuit of autonomy, or strong controlling behavior.

Unification Church and Japan: A Historical Review

The cult previously known as the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, called the Unification Church (UC), was launched to the forefront of public discussion around the globe following the assassination of former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzō Abe in July 2022. The cult itself is no stranger to controversy given its history, however, this incident was particularly disruptive as Japan faced a politician’s assassination motivated by social problems caused by a Christian religious group along with the revelation of widespread connections between the said group and the ruling political party. This chain of events inflicted a damaging influence on Japan’s democracy, an outcome that requires a closer inspection of its roots. To achieve such a goal, this study turns toward factors that allowed the UC to achieve political influence in Japan during the country's pre- and post-World War II political history. In addition, religious groups in Japan, including controversial cults such as Aum Shinrikyo and the UC provide important case studies in public relations and fast development under the title of the “cult controversy”. However, many of the previous studies were insufficient regarding their scope, and there was no uniform technique for presenting or assessing the usually brief opinions on the UC's actual overall influence on Japan's democratic system. However, many of the previous studies were limited in scope. Moreover, there were only a few uniform techniques for presenting or assessing views on the core/overall influence of UC on Japan's democratic system. This study aims to expand the limitations of the literature by bridging previous views based on the historical and recent factors. Through qualitative analysis of archival data as well as existing literature, it is found that the rivalries of certain political figures, pre-WWII rivalries rooted in political ideological differences, and Occupation-era policies were factors that allowed UC to take root in Japan. These factors were explored to reveal early perspectives on UC. As a result, it is found that the rapid and deep organization of UC paved the way for political expansion in post-WWII Japan at the expense of potential social problems.

DO OPPOSITES ATTRACT OR AGGRAVATE? THE IMPACT OF INTERGENERATIONAL SOLIDARITY ON WELL-BEING

Abstract Family Systems Theory states that values are transmitted between generations within families and, while many of these values are similar between immediate generations, there may be more differentiation in values between generation gaps. Ideological differences between generations may potentially cause subsequent tension and fluctuations in well-being. The current study sought to examine the moderating effect of ideological differences (religious and political) on the relation between how emotionally close grandparents perceive themselves being with younger generations and grandparental well-being. Participants included 419 grandparents (age: M = 76, SD = 5.33), 716 adult children (age: M = 53, SD = 4.16), and 638 adult grandchildren (age: M = 29, SD = 5.52) from the 8th wave of the Longitudinal Study of Generations (LSOG) data set. Well-being in grandparents was positively correlated with perceived emotional closeness among both of the intergenerational dyads. Religious ideological differences between grandparents and grandchildren were found to negatively influence grandparental well-being; this relation was also found to be significantly different from political ideological differences within the same intergenerational dyad. While moderation was not achieved for either dyad, the overall model fit was found to be excellent, suggesting its utility for further research into the relation between the study variables. These findings indicate that there is a complex relation between perceived emotional closeness, ideological beliefs, and the well-being of grandparents that warrant additional attention within the literature and may inform interventions related to intergenerational communication and well-being. Further implications for these findings will be discussed.

The Elephant-Donkey Divide: Ideology-Based Faultlines and Strategic Renewal in Turnaround Situations

Research on political psychology suggests that ideological differences among individuals in groups become salient in situations characterized by ‘uncertainty and threat’. We integrate faultlines theory with the uncertainty-threat principle from political psychology to introduce the notion of ideology-based top management team (TMT) faultlines – and examine its effects on strategic renewal in an uncertainty-threat context (i.e., turnaround situations). We argue that, in turnaround situations, differences in political ideology can fracture the TMT into distinct ideological factions (i.e., conservatives vs. liberals) with divergent attitudes toward the adequate management of ‘uncertainty and threat’. Such divergent attitudes cause decision-making fragmentation in the executive group, and thereby reduce the TMT’s ability to swiftly enact strategic renewal. Further, our research also considers the contingency impact of external environmental factors (i.e., shareholder unrest and industry performance decline) that may strengthen the job demands and uncertainty-threat facing executives in turnaround firms and further hamper renewal response. Building upon our findings, we offer a midrange theory of ideological separation in organizational upper echelons and highlight its impact on corporate strategic responses to situations requiring swift and adaptive action.

Argentina’s Energy Governance in the 21st Century: Unraveling its Central Issues

For the Social Sciences in general, the notion of governance represents a polysemic and controversial category whose content depends on the used conceptual approach. However, in the field of natural resources, specifically energy, governance is understood as an analytical tool that, by focusing on the decision-making process, makes it possible to examine, through cases, the exercise of State authority, the rules of the game and public-private interactions in the energy sector. This paper analyzes the energy governance process of Argentina during Cristina Fernández (2007-2015) and Mauricio Macri (2015-2019) administrations. Due to their political-ideological differences, ruptures and continuities are traced with a view to addressing the political-economic dimension of energy management as a topic of the public agenda, whose implications are presented both domestically and in foreign policy decisions.

An Exploration of How Millennial Australian Conservative Voters Conceptualize Privilege

Research has identified variability in the way people see and understand privilege and their desire to address inequality. Generational and political ideological differences may be factors that shape such variability. Despite considerable inequality and a growing class system, to date, little research has been conducted in Australia to consider how people conceptualize these issues. Given this, the aim of this research was to explore how millennial Australian conservative voters conceptualize privilege. 10 semi‐structured interviews were conducted with millennial conservative party voters, and transcripts were analyzed thematically. Four themes were identified: (1) defining privilege (an advantage over others without effort); (2) comparisons: self to others (empathic downward comparisons saw participants identify qualities of their life that were privileged); (3) value tensions (tensions between participants political ideology and personal views) (4) disadvantage: individual or collective responsibility? (who and how inequality should be addressed). Combined, these themes revealed a highly contextual and nuanced conceptualization of privilege and how at times participants contested the conservative belief in meritocracy when empathically engaging in downward comparison of other’s circumstances, recognizing some positions of disadvantage could not be remedied by individual effort. Findings contribute to understandings in political psychology regarding downward comparisons and meritocracy.

CEO Political Ideology, Shareholder Primacy, and Dividend Policy

We argue that CEOs have different attitudes toward the firm's stakeholders and that these differences in attitudes affect the firm's decision making. We hypothesize that these differences stem from differences in political ideology: Liberal CEOs, as compared to their conservative counterparts, pay less attention to shareholders and this is reflected in dividend policy. To test the validity of our hypothesis, we measure CEO ideology by political donations. We study the CEOs of S&P 500 firms during 1997-2014 and find that firms with liberal CEOs are less likely to pay dividends and have significantly lower dividend payouts. In contrast, conservative CEOs pay more dividends, even if this requires redundancies.

Opiate of the Masses? Inequality, Religion, and Political Ideology in the United States

Abstract This study considers the assertion that religion is the opiate of the masses. Using a special module of the General Social Survey, I first demonstrate that religion functions as a compensatory resource for structurally disadvantaged groups—women, racial minorities, those with lower incomes, and, to a lesser extent, sexual minorities. I then demonstrate that religion—operating as both compensatory resource and values-shaping schema—suppresses what would otherwise be larger group differences in political ideology. This study provides empirical support for the general “opiate” claim that religion is the “sigh of the oppressed creature” and suppressor of emancipatory political values. I expand and refine the theory, however, showing how religion provides (1) compensatory resources for lack of social, and not just economic, status, and (2) traditional-values-oriented schemas that, rather than just distracting people, shape their politics in accordance with the content of religious belief systems.

CEO Political Ideology, Shareholder Primacy and Dividend Policy

We argue that CEOs have different attitudes toward the firm’s stakeholders and that these differences in attitudes affect the firm’s decision making. We hypothesize that these differences stem from differences in political ideology: Liberal CEOs, as compared to their conservative counterparts, pay less attention to shareholders and this is reflected in dividend policy. To test the validity of our hypothesis, we measure CEO ideology by political donations. We study the CEOs of S&P 500 firms during 1997-2014 and find that firms with liberal CEOs are less likely to pay dividends and have significantly lower dividend payouts. In contrast, conservative CEOs pay more dividends, even if this requires redundancies.

Testing the effects of pathogen threat and sexual strategies on political ideology.

Disgust has been consistently associated with greater political conservatism. Two explanations have been proposed for this link. According to a pathogen threat model, disgust serves a pathogen-avoidance function, encouraging more conservative ideology, whereas a sexual strategies model suggests that this link is explained by variability in short-term versus long-term mating goals. In two preregistered studies using a college student and community sample (total N = 1,950), we examined whether experimentally manipulating pathogen threat and mate availability produced differences in political ideology and whether these differences were explained by disgust and sociosexual attitudes. Across both studies, we did not find evidence that manipulating pathogen threat or mate availability resulted in change in political ideology. In Study 1, manipulating mate availability was indirectly associated with greater political conservativism through stronger sociosexual attitudes that favor monogamy. These findings failed to replicate in Study 2. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

A discourse network analysis of the public media debate on the UK Soft Drinks Industry Levy

Abstract Background On 6th April 2018, the UK Government introduced the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) as a policy designed to reduce population level sugar consumption and related illnesses. Given that the successful introduction of upstream food and nutrition policies is a highly political enterprise involving multiple interested parties, understanding the complex network of stakeholders seeking to influence such policy decisions is imperative. Methods Media content analysis was employed to build a data set of relevant articles from UK national newspapers. Articles were analysed to identify stakeholder agreement or disagreement with defined concept statements. We used discourse network analysis to produce visual representations of the stakeholder network and coalitions evident in the debate, leading up to and following the announcement of the SDIL. Results We identified 3,883 statements made by 214 individuals from 176 organisations, relating to 47 concepts. Visualisations revealed a complex network of stakeholders with two discourse coalitions. Polarisation arose from 3 factors: (i) differences in political ideology; (ii) position on the specific policy option; (iii) interpretation of the evidence. Industry stakeholders appeared less united before the SDIL announcement. Some industry actors appeared in the supportive coalition, possibly due to the use of corporate social responsibility rhetoric. Jamie Oliver was a dominant supportive stakeholder, suggestive of his role as a policy entrepreneur. Conclusions This study illustrates the complexity of the network of stakeholders involved in the public debate on food policies such as sugar tax and the SDIL. Public health advocates seeking to gain support for future upstream regulation to promote population health would benefit from tailoring their communication to take advantage of sources of polarisation. Vocal celebrity policy entrepreneurs may be instrumental to facilitate alignment of stakeholders around a clear ideology. Key messages This study provides a novel insight into the network of stakeholders involved in public debates on food policies. Public health advocates may benefit by identifying and aligning with a clear ideology.

Activism and Assimilation: The Political Memoirs of Olivia Chow and Adrienne Clarkson

While the history of Chinese settlement in Canada is touted as an example of perseverance despite racist opposition and of socio-economic success under Canada’s immigration and multiculturalism policies, it is important to remember the very active role that Chinese Canadians played in their own trajectory. Throughout its history, the Chinese Canadian community has engaged in civic and political activism, on the one hand, and the promotion of positive stereotypes associated with assimilation into Euro-Canadian society on the other. Both of these approaches can be seen in the political memoirs of two prominent Chinese Canadian women: My Journey by Olivia Chow, a Member of Parliament who focused her career on a plethora of social justice initiatives; and Heart Matters by Adrienne Clarkson, a former Governor General who deemphasizes her Chinese heritage in order to mould herself into the ideal Canadian citizen. Despite these clear differences in political ideology and personal identity, both Chow and Clarkson’s memoirs reveal the ways in which Chinese Canadians can not only claim full belonging as Canadian citizens, but also interrogate systemic forms of racism and inequality.

When moral identity harms: The impact of perceived differences in core values on helping and hurting

This research investigates moral self-regulatory individual differences and perceived differences in core moral-political values as predictors of helping and hurting behavior in liberals and conservatives. Study 1 (N = 249) demonstrated that self-reported liberals and conservatives do not differ on moral disengagement, moral identity, or trait aggression. Study 2 (N = 149) used an online version of the Tangram Task paradigm and showed that perceived differences in moral values: i) predict increased hurting and decreased helping behavior, ii) interact with moral identity to strengthen the relationship between moral disengagement and hurting behavior, and iii) are strongly correlated to perceived differences in political ideology. These patterns were similar for both liberals and conservatives. These studies demonstrate that moral identity does not unequivocally predict helping behavior, conservatism and liberalism do not predict willingness to harm one another, and that moral values are central to political values. The findings are discussed in relation to ideological conflict hypothesis and moral self-regulation literature, along with applied implications.

An Examination of Aggressive Beliefs and Attitudes in Relation to Political Affiliation and Candidate Endorsement in the United States

Social cognition provides insight into why Americans are largely divided with strong partisan rifts. The purpose of this set of studies was to examine social cognitive forms of aggression in relation to political party affiliation and political candidate endorsement. In Study 1 (N = 1,657), all forms of aggressive social cognitions (hostile attribution, potency, retribution, victimization by powerful others, derogation of target, and social discounting) were significantly associated with one or more political parties in some respect (Democrat, Republican, Independent). In Study 2 (N = 579), participants who endorsed Bernie Sanders reported higher scores on victimization, while participants who endorsed Donald Trump reported scores high on potency (social cognitive forms of aggression were unrelated to support for Hillary Clinton or Ted Cruz beyond political ideology). Results suggest that current political division goes beyond mere differences in political ideology as fundamental aggression-related individual differences appear to covary with how partisans see political parties and primary candidates. Implications include the potential application of our findings to better managing political interpersonal dynamics. For example, knowing that divergent political beliefs and behaviors are associated with fundamental differences in how people perceive the same stimuli may ease partisan hostility, facilitate dialog, and increase willingness to compromise.

The Role of Islamic Movements in Enhancing Daʿwah Work: The Malaysian Experience

Daʿwah work was one of the main means that helped spread Islam throughout the Malay Archipelago. The advent of Islamic resurgence in 1970s that came along with the emergence of influential Islamic movements had transformed the daʿwah work to become more sophisticated. This paper attempts at understanding the relationship between the traditional daʿwah work and the Islamic movements in Malaysia before looking in- depth at the development of Islamic movements in establishing and improving daʿwah methodology and institutions. Findings reveal that the Islamic movements played a very significant role in reforming daʿwah work. They had introduced an alternative system in daʿwah work that had been manifested either in their own private institutions or through advocacy of daʿwah work policies as well as in its implementation within the existing daʿwah work. The findings also prove that the differences in political ideology were not a major obstacle for them in developing daʿwah work in the country. In conclusion, despite the varied understanding and approach of Islamic movements, their contribution in developing the nation through daʿwah work is significant. Overall, the Islamic movements now have to improve the quality of their daʿwah work and learning process in order to face current challenges and obstacles.

2EMF Understanding Emergency Medicine Providers’ Perceptions of the ACA in a Renewed Era of Health Care Reform: National Survey and Qualitative Mixed-Methods Approach

The 2010 ACA has been a source of divisive political conversation and widespread health care reform. In recent months, it has been the center of renewed national attention as many of the law’s key provisions face potential restructuring or repeal. Amidst the changing health system, emergency physicians take on a unique role, serving as the first point of contact for many patients. The objective of this study was to understand their perspectives, illustrating how current and future emergency physicians view the ACA and its impact on patients. The study consisted of 3 parts: a survey of a nationally representative subset of FACEP; a survey of current medical students intending to go into emergency medicine at 8 US medical schools; and a series of 35 qualitative in-depth interviews with current medical students, residents, and emergency physicians across the Yale New Haven Health System. All study parts were completed between September 2017-April 2018. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a grounded theory approach. In order to compare outcomes between surveys, FACEP and medical students were matched on sex, race/ethnicity, and political ideology using coarsened-exact matching. A total of 945 FACEP and 137 medical students interested in EM completed the surveys (response rate: ≥98% FACEP and 36.9% of all medical students surveyed of whom 8.3% were interested in emergency medicine). Overall, 48.5% of physicians indicated having “good knowledge” of the ACA, 59.3% indicated support for the law, and 54.1% indicated that the ACA has resulted in better care for emergency medicine patients. Disagreement with parts of the law (31.9%) and issues with ACA design/implementation (18.8%) were cited as the most common reasons for opposition. Compared to practicing physicians, medical students planning a career in emergency medicine were significantly more likely to self-identify as having “good knowledge” of the ACA (RR[95% CI]: 2.10[1.90-2.31), indicate support for the ACA (1.53[1.39-1.69]), and believe that the ACA has resulted in better overall care for patients (1.35[1.23-1.49]). When asked in interviews about their perceived knowledge of the ACA, EM providers at Yale were more cautious about their proficiency (10/35 reported having “good knowledge”). All acknowledged at least partial support of the law, noting in select comments that “broadening of health care coverage is a moral imperative [⋯] no other viable alternatives have been proposed.” (resident) and that “while I struggle with the law as a whole, everyone deserves health insurance” (physician). All denied changes in their desire to practice medicine and the way that they perceive their work. They did, however, acknowledge an increased number of insured adult patients, awareness of cost-shifting within the hospital system, and concerns among patients with high-deductible private health insurance plans “about the costs of things like observation versus admission.” Both pediatric and adult providers reported seeing more patients. Despite differences in political ideology and concerns about aspects of the ACA, a majority of practicing physicians and medical students report support for the ACA. Future emergency physicians and residents were significantly more likely than board-certified physicians to favorably view the law and its impact on patients, providing insight into the potential direction of health care reform inspired by the next generation of front-line physicians.