Scarily Running Towards The Centre: Political centrism adherence as an effect of mortality salience.

Scarily Running Towards The Centre: Political centrism

adherence as an effect of mortality salience.Carlos Rivera.

Supervisor: Dr. Philip J. Cozzolino.

1Tuesday, 22 January 2013

• Motivated Social Cognition (Jost et al., 2003).

• Psychological tendencies underline ideological differences between the political Right and Left.

• The adoption of conservative ideologies is a ‘matching process’ to satisfy psychological needs.

• Psychological model of epistemic, ideological and existential motivations.

Background


Background

Jost, et al. (2003).


• Terror management theory (TMT; Greenberg, Pyszczynski, & Solomon, 1986).

• Humans share with animals a fundamental orientation toward survival.

• Cultural worldviews are sets of beliefs about the nature of reality.• Provide meaning and the promise of symbolic

immortality.• Serve as a shield against the anxiety of inevitable

death.

Background


• TMT shows that cultural worldviews provide protection against reminders of death.

• ‘Mortality Salience’ manipulation (MS) creates worldview defence, protection, guides for action

1. Describe the emotions that the thought of your own death arouses in you.

2. What do you think will happen to you as you physically die and once you are physically dead?

Background


• TMT & MS.• Overwhelming fear of death must be managed.• Generates defensive states with a focus on protecting

the symbolic self against threats.• MS manipulation sets attention to external sources of

information.

• 13 of September, 2001: 86% (Morin & Deane, 2001).

Background

• President Bush approval rating on September 5, 2001:• 51% (PollingReport.com, 2004).

External Validity?


• TMT & MS.• President Bush image

served as protective shield against death. (Landau, et al, 2004).

• Again, MS inflates regard for people, concepts and objects that represent own culture.

• MS enhance appeal of charismatic leader (Cohen, et al, 2004).

Background


• Is Voting a Rational Choice? TMT & MS.• Participants in CN gave

higher ratings to John Kerry over George Bush. (Landau, et al, 2004).

• When reminded of their mortality (MS) George Bush’s evaluation increased.

Background

Landau, et al, (2004).


Need for Closure

• Desire to have closure urgently and maintain it permanently as compared to confusion and/or ambiguity (Kruglanski, 2004, p. 6).

• Strong need for closure tend to “seize” on information permitting a judgement on a topic of interest and to “freeze” on such judgement, becoming relatively impermeable or closed-minded to further relevant information (Kruglanski & Webster, 1996).

Background


Need for Closure

• Refers to the way in which individuals approach and reduce cognitive uncertainty (Golec & Federico, 2004).

• High NFCS’s:

• Favours homogeneous in-groups because their shared beliefs provide firm, socially validated reality.

• May induce a general group centrism (De Grada et al., 1999; Kruglanski, et al., 2002).

• Look to reach a clear consensus.

Background


Need for Closure

• NFC means ‘black-and-white’ schema but...

• there are times when need for uniformity is high.

• Hypothesis.

• MS should interact with need for closure.

• Deviants from the political centre should not be highly regarded by people high in NFC.

Background


• 161 psychology students (UoE).(female= 101, men= 58 (2 not reported); M = 21.92, SD = 5.21).

• Presented psychological inventories:

• Nationalism/Patriotism (UK version).

• Party Preference scale.

• Need for Closure.

• Social Dominance Orientation.

• Political Knowledge.

• Other psychological scales.

• Participants assigned to MS or control conditions.• Read biographies of four politicians who switched political

ideologies.

Study 1


Study 1


Study 1• Political Approval

• “I respect this politician.”• “I do not think that this politician is worthy of esteem.” (R)• “I do not have a high opinion of this

politician.” (R)• “I think that this politician is in politics for the ‘right

reasons’.”

• Alphas:• Politician 1 (Right > Left) (Out > Centre) .764• Politician 2 (Right > Left) (Centre > Out) .767• Politician 3 (Left > Right) (Centre > Out) .775• Politician 4 (Left > Right) (Out > Centre) .802


• Design

• 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 mixed ANOVA• Condition (MS/CN); Need for Closure (NFC) - Between

subjects.

• Movement (LR/RL) and Direction (Out-Centre/Centre-out) - Within subjects.

• Expectation

• Direction of the politicians movement will mean more for those in the MS condition and high in NFC.

Study 1


• Primary hypothesis test• Need for Closure X Condition X Direction interaction.• Only higher-order significant interaction.• F(1, 152) = 5.80, p < .05

Study 1

4.00

4.25

4.50

4.75

5.00

Low NFC High NFC

Out > CentreMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val


• Primary hypothesis test• Need for Closure X Condition X Direction interaction.• Only higher-order significant interaction.• F(1, 152) = 5.80, p < .05

Study 1

4.00

4.25

4.50

4.75

5.00

Low NFC High NFC

Out > CentreMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val

4.00

4.25

4.50

4.75

5.00

Low NFC High NFC

Centre > OutMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val


• Brief Discussion

• MS induce people high in NFC to seek comfort in social groups.

• Psychological processes of social bonding in line with Cozzolino (2006) dual-existential model.

• Group-centrism, is related to the needs to reduce uncertainty and to dispel ambiguity.

Study 1


• Study 1 looked at political support for individual politicians.

• Study 2 is making holistic judgements, looking at political parties.

Study 2


A Little Quote“Anywhere where the ruling elites, particularly the Labour Party which was the, everything, for a place like this years ago has abandoned the working class, you got this enormous gulf which is going to be filled by somebody and where possible we make sure that is filled by us”.


A Little Quote“Anywhere where the ruling elites, particularly the Labour Party which was the, everything, for a place like this years ago has abandoned the working class, you got this enormous gulf which is going to be filled by somebody and where possible we make sure that is filled by us”.

Nick Griffin.Chairman of British National Party.(BBC “Panorama” Interview, 2008)


• Change of context (individual politicians to political parties across the spectrum).

• Moving from individual to social.

• Also support for fringe, that now seem “less extreme”.

• Because traditional parties move to centre.

• Two conditions:

• No party movement.

• Parties move toward centre (gaps filled).

Study 2


Study 2


Discussion• Design• 2 X 2 X 2 X 2 mixed ANOVA• Condition, Need for Closure, & Movement - Between

subjects• Support for left/right - Within subjects


• 78 psychology students (UoE).(female= 48, men= 30; M = 24.71, SD = 9.25).

• Presented psychological inventories:

• Nationalism/Patriotism (UK version).

• Party Preference scale.

• Need for Closure.

• Social Dominance Orientation.

• Political Knowledge.

• Other psychological scales.

• Participants assigned to MS or control conditions.• Read alleged Political Science textbook.• Ask to rate their support.

Study 2


Study 2

3.1698

3.6274

4.0849

4.5425

5.0000

Low NFC High NFC

“New” Right SupportMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val

3.0810

3.5608

4.0405

4.5203

5.0000

Low NFC High NFC

“New” Left SupportMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val


• Primary hypothesis test• 4-way interaction, F(1, 70) = 3.49, p = .06• Splitting sample on “movement” (no move or all move).• No interactive effects in “no movement” condition, but

significant three-way between condition, NFC, and support in the ‘all move’ condition (p < .05).

Study 2

3.1698

3.6274

4.0849

4.5425

5.0000

Low NFC High NFC

“New” Right SupportMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val

3.0810

3.5608

4.0405

4.5203

5.0000

Low NFC High NFC

“New” Left SupportMSCN

Po

liti

cal

Ap

pro

val


Conclusions


• Existential and Epistemic motives interact to console people when feeling intimidated.

• Threatening remainders seem to amplify demands for consensus and clarity on for those high in need for closure.

• In a context of changing political positions, when MORTALITY SALIENCE and NEED FOR CLOSURE are combined not all “CENTRISM” is equal.

• Psychological appeal about the “NEW RIGHT” for high in Need for Closure who have had been reminded about their mortality.

• Political Psychology: Micro-level answers to Macro-level issues issues.

Conclusions


Thank you!

Any questions?


Scarily Running Towards The Centre: Political centrism adherence as an effect of mortality salience.

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