Self-Affirmation and Identity-Driven Political Behavior

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Benjamin A. Lyons ◽  
Christina E. Farhart ◽  
Michael P. Hall ◽  
John Kotcher ◽  
Matthew Levendusky ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
The Self ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Null Results ◽  
News Sources ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Abstract Psychological attachment to political parties can bias people’s attitudes, beliefs, and group evaluations. Studies from psychology suggest that self-affirmation theory may ameliorate this problem in the domain of politics on a variety of outcome measures. We report a series of studies conducted by separate research teams that examine whether a self-affirmation intervention affects a variety of outcomes, including political or policy attitudes, factual beliefs, conspiracy beliefs, affective polarization, and evaluations of news sources. The different research teams use a variety of self-affirmation interventions, research designs, and outcomes. Despite these differences, the research teams consistently find that self-affirmation treatments have little effect. These findings suggest considerable caution is warranted for researchers who wish to apply the self-affirmation framework to studies that investigate political attitudes and beliefs. By presenting the “null results” of separate research teams, we hope to spark a discussion about whether and how the self-affirmation paradigm should be applied to political topics.

Islamo-nationalism, domestic politics, and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India since the 1990s

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 340-364
Author(s):  
Md. Abdul Mannan
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Domestic Politics ◽  
The Self ◽  
Weak States ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Nationalist Party ◽  
The Face ◽  
Islamic Identity

This article examines the connection between politics of Islamo-nationalism in Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s policy of balancing against India. In response to India’s regional supremacy in South Asia, especially India’s dominance over Bangladesh, policy makers in Bangladesh have constantly faced two options: either ‘bandwagoning’ with India, or ‘balancing’ against the regional hegemon. Interestingly, since the 1990s until 2013, Bangladesh’s response has always swung from one side to another – from bandwagoning to balancing – in connection with the rotation of Bangladesh regime between two major political parties: the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Bangladesh Awami League (AL). Bangladesh – with the BNP’s hold on power – preferred a policy of balancing against India’s dominance. During the regime of the AL, such policy dramatically shifted towards bandwagoning with India. The BNP’s preference for a balancing policy constitutes a puzzle. Weak states – which are not capable of changing unequal outcomes in the face of a preponderant power – generally pursue a policy of bandwagoning. Thus, the puzzle is as to why Bangladesh – despite being a weak actor vis-a-vis India’s overwhelming regional supremacy – pursued a policy of balancing against India during the BNP’s hold on power. This article asserts that the BNP’s politics of Islamo-nationalism is a key variable that can answer the above puzzle. The ‘self–other’ notion of Islamo-nationalism defines the national ‘selfness’ of Bangladesh in terms of the Islamic identity for its overwhelming Muslim masses, and constructs India, henceforth in this article, ‘Hindu India’, as the ‘enemy–other’ to ‘Muslim Bangladesh’.

Conceptual Disruption

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 451-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara I. McClelland
Keyword(s):  
Survey Research ◽  
Sexual Satisfaction ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Report Data ◽  
Self Report Data ◽  
Cantril’S Ladder

In research using self-report measures, there is little attention paid to how participants interpret concepts; instead, researchers often assume definitions are shared, universal, or easily understood. I discuss the self-anchored ladder, adapted from Cantril’s ladder, which is a procedure that simultaneously collects a participant’s self-reported rating and their interpretation of that rating. Drawing from a study about sexual satisfaction that included a self-anchored ladder, four analyses are presented and discussed in relation to one another: (1) comparisons of sexual satisfaction scores, (2) variations of structures participants applied to the ladder, (3) frequency of terms used to describe sexual satisfaction, and (4) thematic analysis of “best” and “worst” sexual satisfaction. These analytic strategies offer researchers a model for how to incorporate self-anchored ladder items into research designs as a means to draw out layers of meaning in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods data. I argue that the ladder invites the potential for conceptual disruption by prioritizing skepticism in survey research and bringing greater attention to how social locations, histories, economic structures, and other factors shape self-report data. I also address issues related to the multiple epistemological positions that the ladder demands. Finally, I argue for the centrality of epistemological self-reflexivity in critical feminist psychological research. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684317725985

Policy Attitudes of Party Members in Canada: Evidence of Ideological Politics

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 859-880 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Cross ◽  
Lisa Young
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
Party System ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Substantial Evidence ◽  
Policy Positions ◽  
Policy Attitudes ◽  
Party Members

This article considers the degree to which characteristics of the ideological model of political parties are evident in the Canadian party system. Four questions are considered: are members attracted to parties on the basis of their policy positions; is there a structure to party members' issue attitudes; is there significant attitudinal space between the parties; and is there cohesion within the parties on the identified attitudinal measures? Data collected through a national mail survey of members of the five federal parties are used to answer these questions. The article finds there is substantial evidence of the ideological model in the Canadian party system and concludes by considering the effect this may have on the brokerage traditions of Canadian parties.

scholarly journals The Character of Abdulkarim Qasim is Between National and Communist Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 502-528
Author(s):  
Suzan Karim Mustafa
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
International Community ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The Self ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Changing Roles ◽  
Factors Of Success

In the revolutions of history, an individual or leader is always given a higher role than all perpetrators of events, leaders have always been recognized as heroes in history, and a leader has faced all the factors of success and failure. In all societies, one or more people have always appeared and dominated the entire political and economic spheres of the country, a factor in the self-perception of history, or the hegemony of history, while the achievements of history belong only to one or the first leader, the total number of participants in the process of changing roles and his Impact on the direction of events. Abdul Karim Qasim is an example of a leader in Iraq who went from revolution to dictatorship, while people looked at him with hope and described him as a leader who changed the course of history, the reason for his failure was the conflict between political parties and the international community. This study is the gateway to getting to know Abdul Karim Qasim's personality from the point of view of his opponents. In this two-part study, we discussed the beginnings of Abdul-Karim Qasim’s relations with political parties, and the views of the nationalist and communist parties towards Abdul-Karim Qasim, relying on several sources of different ideologies.

scholarly journals Viðhorf ungs fólks til pólitískrar þátttöku

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 287
Author(s):  
Ragný Þóra Guðjohnsen ◽  
Sigrún Aðalbjarnardóttir
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Young People ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Social Movement ◽  
Parental Support ◽  
Societal Issues ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
People’S Attitudes ◽  
Movement Participation

The aim of the study is to explore young people’s attitudes towards political participation, both towards social-movement participation, such as taking part in protecting the environment and advocate for human rights; and towards more conventional participation such as voting. Their attitudes are examined in relation to their understanding of democracy, their empathy level, their parents’ support, and both their own and their parents’ conventional and social-movement participation. The study is a part of the research project, Young People’s Civic Engagement in a Democratic Society. The participants are Icelandic, age 14 and 18, in total 1042. They all responded to a questionnaire and 21 of them were interviewed. The study’s main findings were: Proportionally more young people emphasized social-movement participation than conventional participation. The more understanding they had of democracy and the higher level of empathy they expressed, the more positive attitudes they had towards social-movement participation. Furthermore, those who experienced more parental support and reported their own or their parents’ conventional and social-movement participation had more positive attitudes towards social-movement participation. Fewer factors were related to the young people’s attitudes towards conventional participation. The more girls found characteristics of democracy important, the more positive attitudes they had towards conventional participation; also, if their parents had participated in political parties. The interviews revealed that the young people felt social-participation an important way to have a voice, be active, and to have an impact on societal issues. Lack of trust towards authorities reduced their political participation. Also, they called for information about ways and fields to be active.

scholarly journals Learning from Null Effects: A Bottom-Up Approach

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ala' Alrababa'h ◽  
Scott Williamson ◽  
Andrea Dillon ◽  
Jens Hainmueller ◽  
Dominik Hangartner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syrian Refugees ◽  
New Model ◽  
Null Results ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Incentive Problems ◽  
Cumulative Knowledge

A critical barrier to generating cumulative knowledge in political science and related disciplines is the inability of researchers to observe the results from the full set of research designs that scholars have conceptualized, implemented, and analyzed. For a variety of reasons, studies that produce null findings are especially likely to be unobserved, creating biases in publicly accessible research. While several approaches have been suggested to overcome this problem, none have yet proven adequate. We propose a new model in which scholars post short “null results reports” online that summarize their research designs, findings, and interpretations. We discuss a template for these reports and illustrate their utility with two experimental studies focused on the naturalization of immigrants in the United States and attitudes toward Syrian refugees in Jordan. We conclude with a discussion of how to overcome incentive problems and inculcate a discipline-wide norm of publicizing null findings.

scholarly journals Demokrati og politisk deltagelse

Politik ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Palle Svensson
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Political Parties ◽  
Political Participation ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Participatory Democracy ◽  
Representative Democracy ◽  
The Self ◽  
World War ◽  
Self Perception ◽  
Social Distribution

Democracy and political participation are closely related, but both the understanding of them and their relationship is disputed. Two conceptions of democracy – in this article labeled ‘democratic revisionism’ and ‘participatory democracy’ – compete for attention. In the article it is shown how the rst conception of de- mocracy as elite competition developed after World War II. It is further explained how participatory democ- racy developed as a critique of the rst conception. It is also shown how the desirability and the functions of political participation are perceived di erently according to the two conceptions of democracy. Various forms of political participation are discussed, and it is shown how the concept of participation in political science and sociology has been developed to include an increasing number of activities. On this basis, the extent and social distribution of various forms of political participation in Denmark is examined. Finally, it is discussed whether the idea of participatory democracy forms the basis of Danish democracy today. It is concluded that the leaders of the main political parties are reluctant to give up power and that the self-perception of Danish democracy is mainly based on the idea of representative democracy that focuses on elite competition. 

Vulnerability, self-uncertainty, and collective narcissism mediate the relationship between ostracism and conspiracy beliefs: Α representative sample study during the first wave of the pandemic

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Theofilos Gkinopoulos ◽  
Mete Sefa Uysal
Keyword(s):  
Current Knowledge ◽  
The Self ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Moderating Role

A correlational study (N=895) examined the association between ostracism and endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories, the mediating role of sense of vulnerability, self-uncertainty and collective narcissism and the moderating role of conspiracy mentality. We found that ostracism positively predicted endorsement of COVID-19 conspiracy theories and this association was mediated by sense of vulnerability, self-uncertainty and collective narcissism. Conspiracy mentality moderated the relationship between ostracism with the sense of vulnerability, but not the self-uncertainty nor of the collective narcissism. Our study expands on the still very few and scarce research on ostracism and conspiracy theories, by confirming their relationship in the context of the pandemic, as well as exploring further interrelationships, responding to the recent calls for investigating the mediating role of both individual and group-level variables. Theoretical and societal implications are discussed. Results offer a novel insight in the relationship between ostracism and conspiracy theories focused on COVID-19, advancing our current knowledge and developing their relationship even further.

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