PSYCH 317: Dual-foundations Model of Ideology

Political ideology (traditional view)

Political beliefs organised along a single left–right spectrum.

Left-wing politics

Generally associated with equality, redistribution, and social change.

Right-wing politics

Generally associated with hierarchy, inequality, tradition, and social stability.

Origin of left vs right

Originated during the French Revolution where radicals sat on the left and supporters of the monarchy sat on the right.

Limitation of the left-right spectrum

Does not capture the complexity and diversity of political attitudes.

Multidimensionality of political ideology

The idea that political attitudes vary along more than one independent dimension.

Evidence against unidimensionality

Factor analyses consistently identify multiple dimensions underlying political attitudes.

Moral Foundations Theory and multidimensionality

The five moral foundations cluster into two broader groups: individualising and binding foundations.

Individualising foundations

Care/Harm and Fairness/Cheating; focus on protecting individuals.

Binding foundations

Loyalty/Betrayal, Authority/Subversion, and Purity/Degradation; focus on maintaining groups.

Feldman & Johnston (2014)

Found that people within the same political party often agree on economic issues but disagree on social issues.

Malka et al. (2019)

Found that economic conservatism does not reliably predict social conservatism and vice versa.

Cross-cultural evidence for multidimensionality

The relationship between economic and social conservatism varies across countries and can be positive, negative, or absent.

Economic dimension

Political attitudes concerning equality, inequality, redistribution, and resource allocation.

Social dimension

Political attitudes concerning authority, norms, tradition, and social control.

Libertarian

Supports economic freedom and personal autonomy while opposing social control.

Authoritarian leftist

Supports economic equality while also favouring strong social control and authority.

Dual-Process Model of Ideology

A theory proposing that political ideology consists of two independent dimensions: Social Dominance Orientation and Right-Wing Authoritarianism.

Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)

Preference for hierarchical group relations and acceptance of inequality.

Core question of SDO

Should society be organised around equality or hierarchy?

Competitive-jungle worldview

The belief that life is a competitive struggle where stronger groups dominate weaker groups.

High SDO

Associated with economic conservatism, competition, and support for inequality.

Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)

Preference for authority, conformity, obedience, and punishment of norm violators.

Core question of RWA

How much social control should society impose?

Dangerous-world worldview

The belief that the world is threatening and requires strong authority to maintain order.

High RWA

Associated with social conservatism and support for authority and traditional norms.

Equality vs inequality dimension

The political dimension captured primarily by Social Dominance Orientation.

Autonomy vs social control dimension

The political dimension captured primarily by Right-Wing Authoritarianism.

Relationship between SDO and RWA

They are related but distinct dimensions that explain different aspects of political ideology.

Dual Evolutionary Foundations Theory

A theory proposing that political ideology reflects evolved solutions to problems of cooperation and social control.

Central claim of Dual Foundations Theory

The two dimensions of political ideology originate from two key evolutionary transitions in human social life.

First evolutionary transition

The evolution of large-scale cooperation.

Second evolutionary transition

The evolution of social control through norms, conformity, and punishment.

Humans as collaborative foragers

Humans evolved dependence on cooperation to acquire resources and survive.

Human group-mindedness

Humans evolved to think about and coordinate within groups rather than acting solely as individuals.

Cooperation foundation

The evolutionary challenge of balancing competition and cooperation in resource distribution.

Social control foundation

The evolutionary challenge of maintaining group cohesion through norms and authority.

Unique features of human cooperation

Humans are highly prosocial, cooperative, and relatively egalitarian compared to other great apes.

Dictator Game

A behavioural economic task used to measure willingness to share resources with others.

Variation in Dictator Game behaviour

Humans show substantial variation in cooperative behaviour unlike chimpanzees.

Unique features of human social control

Humans enforce norms, experience shame and guilt, and punish norm violators.

Punishment games

Behavioural tasks in which people pay costs to punish individuals who violate norms.

Evolutionary basis of economic politics

Economic issues reflect trade-offs between cooperation and competition.

Evolutionary basis of social politics

Social issues reflect trade-offs between autonomy and social control.

Economic policy examples

Taxation, public healthcare, climate change, and redistribution.

Social policy examples

Abortion, criminal justice, military action, and religious instruction.

Mapping of cooperation to ideology

Cooperation vs competition produces variation in equality vs inequality preferences.

Mapping of social control to ideology

Social control vs autonomy produces variation in authoritarian vs libertarian preferences.

Political ideologies as strategies

Ideologies represent alternative approaches to solving problems of group living.

Physical formidability hypothesis

The idea that physical strength influences attitudes about competition and resource distribution.

Price et al. (2011)

Found that men with greater upper-body strength were more economically conservative and scored higher on Social Dominance Orientation.

Upper-body strength measures in Price et al. (2011)

Bicep, shoulder, and chest circumference measured using 3D body scanning.

Explanation for physical formidability findings

Resource conflicts in ancestral environments were often influenced by physical strength.

Petersen & Laustsen (2019)

Found that the relationship between strength and economic conservatism was small, inconsistent, and varied by country.

Limitation of physical formidability research

Evidence is correlational and does not establish causation.

Behavioural immune system hypothesis

The theory that pathogen avoidance influences social conservatism.

Inbar et al. (2009)

Found that disgust sensitivity predicted opposition to abortion and gay marriage.

Disgust sensitivity

The tendency to experience stronger disgust reactions to potential contaminants.

Tybur et al. (2016)

Found that countries with higher historical pathogen exposure tended to show greater traditionalism.

Parasite stress

Historical exposure to infectious diseases within a population.

Tybur et al. (2016) and SDO

Found no relationship between parasite stress and Social Dominance Orientation.

Implication of Tybur et al. (2016)

Pathogen avoidance appears to influence social attitudes rather than economic attitudes.

Bromham et al. (2018)

Found that parasite stress effects weakened substantially when controlling for countries' non-independence and environmental variables.

Bird and mammal species richness

Better predictor of traditionalism than parasite stress in Bromham et al. (2018).

Latitude

Better predictor of collectivism than parasite stress in Bromham et al. (2018).

New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (NZAVS)

Large representative New Zealand study used to test behavioural predictions of the dual foundations theory.

Sample size of NZAVS study

n = 991 participants.

Cooperation measures used in NZAVS

Dictator Game, Trust Game, and Public Goods Game.

Finding from cooperation tasks

More cooperative individuals preferred greater equality and scored lower on Social Dominance Orientation.

Behavioural prediction of economic ideology

Cooperative behaviour predicts attitudes toward economic equality and redistribution.

Norm enforcement tasks

Behavioural tasks measuring willingness to punish rule breakers.

Finding from punishment tasks

Weak or inconsistent prediction of Right-Wing Authoritarianism.

BEAST task

A social information use task measuring willingness to revise beliefs based on others' opinions.

Procedure of BEAST task

Participants estimate quantities and can revise estimates after seeing others' responses.

High social information use in BEAST task

Associated with higher Right-Wing Authoritarianism.

BEAST task and abortion attitudes

Greater reliance on social information predicted lower support for legal abortion.

BEAST task and religious instruction

Greater reliance on social information predicted stronger support for religious instruction in schools.

BEAST task and prejudice

Greater reliance on social information predicted more prejudice toward gay people.

Conclusion from BEAST task

Social conformity predicts some aspects of social conservatism, although effects are weak.

Human Relations Area Files (HRAF)

A collection of ethnographic records used to examine political variation across cultures.

Number of societies in HRAF analysis

66 societies.

Finding from HRAF analysis

Political conflicts across societies consistently involve cooperation vs competition and social control vs autonomy.

Amhara people of Ethiopia and cooperation

Conflict between individuals seeking wealth accumulation and community pressures favouring equality.

Amhara people of Ethiopia and social control

Conflict between authority figures discouraging criticism and individuals using poetry to challenge authority.

Cross-cultural prediction of Dual Foundations Theory

The two dimensions of ideology should appear in all human societies because they stem from universal evolutionary challenges.

Overall conclusion of Dual Foundations Theory

Political ideology reflects evolved solutions to the problems of cooperation/competition and social control/autonomy.

Future research directions

Test findings outside New Zealand, develop better measures of social control, examine effects of cooperation scale, and study political structure in non-industrialised societies.