Testing the asymmetry hypothesis of tolerance: Thinking about socially disruptive protest actions

IF 1.8 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Pub Date : 2023-08-01 DOI:10.5964/jspp.11269

M. Verkuyten, K. Yogeeswaran, Levi Adelman

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

Under the asymmetry hypothesis, political tolerance and intolerance differ in their underlying psychology, making it easier to persuade the tolerant to become less tolerant than to convince the intolerant to become more tolerant. Using a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 546), we examined this hypothesis for people’s tolerance or intolerance of socially disruptive protest actions of their least-liked group. Focusing on the relevant contrasting values of freedom of speech and public order, we found empirical evidence for the asymmetry of political tolerance: it was easier to persuade the tolerant to become less tolerant than to convince the intolerant to become more tolerant. In fact, we found a backlash effect among the intolerant participants with them showing higher intolerance as a result. These findings support the notion that tolerance is more fragile than intolerance because of the required self-restraint that involves psychological discomfort and uneasiness. However, tolerance is indispensable for our increasingly polarized liberal democratic societies making further research on the social psychology of tolerance and intolerance topical and urgent.

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检验宽容的不对称假设:对社会破坏性抗议行动的思考

在不对称假设下，政治宽容和不宽容在其潜在心理上存在差异，这使得说服宽容者变得不那么宽容比说服不宽容者变得更宽容更容易。使用荷兰人口的代表性样本（N=546），我们检验了人们对他们最不喜欢的群体的社会破坏性抗议行为的容忍或不容忍的假设。关注言论自由和公共秩序的相关对比价值观，我们发现了政治宽容不对称的经验证据：说服宽容者变得不那么宽容比说服不宽容者变得更宽容更容易。事实上，我们发现在不宽容的参与者中存在反弹效应，因此他们表现出更高的不宽容。这些发现支持了这样一种观点，即宽容比不宽容更脆弱，因为需要自我克制，包括心理上的不适和不安。然而，容忍对于我们日益两极分化的自由民主社会来说是不可或缺的，这使得进一步研究容忍和不容忍的社会心理成为当务之急。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Social Sciences-Sociology and Political Science

CiteScore

2.70

自引率

4.80%

发文量

审稿时长

40 weeks

期刊介绍： The Journal of Social and Political Psychology (JSPP) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal (without author fees), published online. It publishes articles at the intersection of social and political psychology that substantially advance the understanding of social problems, their reduction, and the promotion of social justice. It also welcomes work that focuses on socio-political issues from related fields of psychology (e.g., peace psychology, community psychology, cultural psychology, environmental psychology, media psychology, economic psychology) and encourages submissions with interdisciplinary perspectives. JSPP is comprehensive and integrative in its approach. It publishes high-quality work from different epistemological, methodological, theoretical, and cultural perspectives and from different regions across the globe. It provides a forum for innovation, questioning of assumptions, and controversy and debate. JSPP aims to give creative impetuses for academic scholarship and for applications in education, policymaking, professional practice, and advocacy and social action. It intends to transcend the methodological and meta-theoretical divisions and paradigm clashes that characterize the field of social and political psychology, and to counterbalance the current overreliance on the hypothetico-deductive model of science, quantitative methodology, and individualistic explanations by also publishing work following alternative traditions (e.g., qualitative and mixed-methods research, participatory action research, critical psychology, social representations, narrative, and discursive approaches). Because it is published online, JSPP can avoid a bias against research that requires more space to be presented adequately.