Political Ideology and Consumption: Perspectives and Effects

T he influence of political ideology on individuals’ behavior and their endorsement of social policies is pervasive, and its impact on their economic and social well-being is incontrovertible. The influence of political ideology is evident not only in how recent social events have been interpreted (e.g., the storming of the Capitol on January 6, the murder of George Floyd, etc.) but also in people’s everyday nonpolitical behavior (e.g., their choice and purchases of consumer goods and other consumption-related activity). The research reported in this special issue documents the effects of political ideology on reactions to various consumption-related experiences. Although no single theory of political ideology can easily account for the diversity of the phenomena reported in this special issue, an understanding of the different perspectives from which political ideology has been studied is helpful to understand these effects. Much of the research on political ideology identifies people with different beliefs along on a liberalism-conservatism dimension. Although these end points are closely aligned with Democratic and Republican political parties, party identity is not always consistent with people’s beliefs on specific issues (Wyer et al. 1991; Huddy, Mason, and Aaroe 2015). Yet the current disposition of federal legislators to vote along party lines and the polarized attitudes of those who belong to these parties suggest that the schism emerges partly from deep-seated differences in ideological beliefs and thinking styles. Differences in conservative-liberal beliefs have been attributed to personality, evolution and genetics, all of which presumably affect the cognitive andphysiological reactions of individuals to a variety of issues. In the following section, we provide a background of research that has been conducted from different perspectives. We then review the research reported in this volume in relation to these perspectives.