Author: Newton (---.socal.rr.com)
Date: 01-22-04 17:41
Research Papers on Conservative Motivations:
Four researchers recently published in the American
Psychological Association's (APA) Psychological
Bulletin. Their first paper is entitled "Political Conservatism
as Motivated Social Cognition" and appeared
in the APA's Psychological Bulletin 2003, Vol. 129, No. 3,
339-375. The researchers examine the
psychological factors that contribute to political
conservatism,According the authors:
".[W]e consider evidence for and against the hypotheses that
political conservatism is
significantly associated with (1) mental rigidity and
closed-mindedness, including (a) increased
dogmatism and intolerance of ambiguity, (b) decreased cognitive
complexity, (c) decreased
openness to experience, (d) uncertainty avoidance, (e) personal
needs for order and structure, and
(f) need for cognitive closure; (2) lowered self-esteem; (3)
fear, anger, and aggression; (4)
pessimism, disgust, and contempt; (5) loss prevention; (6) fear
of death; (7) threat arising from
social and economic deprivation; and (8) threat to the stability
of the social system. We have
argued that these motives are in fact related to one another
psychologically, and our motivated
social-cognitive perspective helps to integrate them. We now
offer an integrative, meta-analytic
review of research on epistemic, existential, and ideological
bases of conservatism."
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