Some psychological determinants of broad union attitudes

IF 1.8 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Journal of Social and Political Psychology Pub Date : 2022-10-12 DOI:10.5964/jspp.9659

Owen McAleese, Martin V. Day

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Abstract

Many societies are grappling with how to reduce high levels of economic inequality. Although often overlooked, labor unions can have significant flattening effects on inequality. However, unions are not highly supported by the general public. To provide some psychological explanation as to why this may be the case, we examined five potential predictors of general union attitudes (i.e., political orientation, prejudice toward union members, meritocratic beliefs, union knowledge and social mobility beliefs). We tested each variable at least twice across three studies (two in the U.S., one in Canada, total N = 1756). Results indicated that stronger political conservative orientation, prejudice feelings towards union members and less accurate knowledge of union activities uniquely explained lower pro-union attitudes across studies. Meritocratic and social mobility beliefs did not meaningfully explain union attitudes. Although mostly correlational, this research provides insight into potential reasons why everyday citizens may support or condemn unions in an increasingly unequal world. Implications for altering union attitudes and support for related policies are discussed.

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广泛工会态度的一些心理决定因素

许多社会都在努力解决如何减少严重的经济不平等问题。尽管经常被忽视，但工会可以在不平等问题上起到显著的平抑作用。但是，工会并没有得到国民的高度支持。为了提供一些关于为什么会出现这种情况的心理学解释，我们研究了一般工会态度的五个潜在预测因素(即政治取向、对工会成员的偏见、精英主义信仰、工会知识和社会流动性信仰)。我们在三项研究(两项在美国，一项在加拿大，总共N = 1756)中对每个变量进行了至少两次测试。结果表明，较强的政治保守倾向、对工会成员的偏见情绪和对工会活动的不准确了解是各研究中亲工会态度较低的唯一原因。精英主义和社会流动性信念并不能有效地解释工会的态度。虽然大多数情况下是相关的，但这项研究提供了深入了解在一个日益不平等的世界里，普通公民可能支持或谴责工会的潜在原因。讨论了改变工会态度和支持相关政策的意义。

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.