Testing cognitive and interpersonal asymmetry vs. symmetry among voters in the 2020 Presidential primaries

IF 1.8 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Pub Date : 2021-11-30 DOI:10.5964/jspp.7771

Jake Womick, L. King

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

During the 2020 U.S. Presidential primary season, we measured candidate support and cognitive and interpersonal variables associated with political ideology among 831 U.S. participants. Cognitive style variables included openness to experience, active open-minded thinking, dogmatism, and preference for one right answer. Interpersonal variables were compassion and empathy. We modeled candidate support across the political spectrum, ranging from the most conservative to the most liberal (Trump, Bloomberg, Biden, Warren, Sanders), testing competing pre-registered predictions informed by the symmetry and asymmetry perspectives on political ideology. Specifically, we tested whether mean levels on the variables of interest across candidate supporters conformed to patterns consistent with symmetry (i.e., a curvilinear pattern with supporters of relatively extreme candidates being similar to each other relative to supporters of moderate candidates) vs. asymmetry (e.g., linear differences across supporters of liberal vs. conservative candidates). Results broadly supported the asymmetry perspective: Supporters of liberal candidates were generally lower on cognitive rigidity and higher on interpersonal warmth than supporters of conservative candidates. Results and implications are discussed.

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测试2020年总统初选中选民的认知和人际不对称与对称

在2020年美国总统初选期间，我们测量了831名美国参与者的候选人支持率以及与政治意识形态相关的认知和人际变量。认知风格变量包括对经验的开放性、积极开放的思维、教条主义和对一个正确答案的偏好。人际变量是同情心和同理心。我们对从最保守到最自由（特朗普、布隆伯格、拜登、沃伦、桑德斯）的各个政治派别的候选人支持率进行了建模，测试了根据政治意识形态的对称性和非对称性视角进行的相互竞争的预登记预测。明确地我们测试了候选人支持者之间感兴趣变量的平均水平是否符合对称性（即，相对极端候选人的支持者相对于温和候选人的支持者彼此相似的曲线模式）与不对称性（例如，自由派候选人与保守派候选人的支持者之间的线性差异）相一致的模式。结果广泛支持不对称观点：自由派候选人的支持者在认知刚性方面通常低于保守派候选人，在人际温暖方面则高于保守派候选人。讨论了结果和含义。

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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.