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Examining the Left-Right Divide: Causes, Correlates, and Consequences of Political Ideology
dc.contributor.author | Ruisch, Benjamin Coe | |
dc.date.accessioned | 2020-08-10T20:24:31Z | |
dc.date.issued | 2020-05 | |
dc.identifier.other | Ruisch_cornellgrad_0058F_11896 | |
dc.identifier.other | http://dissertations.umi.com/cornellgrad:11896 | |
dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1813/70456 | |
dc.description | 182 pages | |
dc.description.abstract | The left-right political divide is among the most contentious in modern society, often eliciting more explicit acrimony than divisions based on race, religion, or social class. In this dissertation, I present three lines of research examining the ideological divide. This work illustrates the three main lenses through which I have approached the study of ideology, examining its causes, correlates and consequences. In the first series of studies I focus on the upstream causes of ideology, examining how individual differences in low-level physiological traits can influence a person’s political attitudes. In four studies (total N = 1,639) I provide evidence that genetically determined differences in gustatory (taste) sensitivity shape a person’s political ideology, with more taste-sensitive individuals tending to become more politically conservative. In the second line of research, I turn to the correlates of ideology, investigating how the same upstream factors that influence ideology can also shape other aspects of cognition for those on the left and right. In a series of 14 studies (total N = 4,595), I find that there are wide-ranging ideological differences in judgment and decision-making confidence, with political conservatives exhibiting greater metacognitive confidence across a broad range of judgment domains. I also find evidence that these differences in confidence are driven by the same upstream epistemic needs that shape political ideology. Finally, I consider the downstream consequences of ideology, examining how belonging to an ideological group, in turn, can influence a person’s cognition and behavior. In a series of 12 studies (total N = 9,917), I examine how shifting social norms among ideological ingroups reshaped Americans’ intergroup attitudes in the wake of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. I find evidence that Donald Trump’s political ascent substantially reshaped expressions of explicit prejudice among Americans—but that the direction of this change diverged sharply along ideological lines: conservatives (especially Trump supporters) showed significant increases in prejudice towards a wide range of minority groups. Liberals, conversely, showed significant decreases in prejudice over this same period. In conclusion, I consider some possible future research directions at the intersections of these three lines of work. | |
dc.language.iso | en | |
dc.subject | intergroup relations | |
dc.subject | political ideology | |
dc.subject | social cognition | |
dc.title | Examining the Left-Right Divide: Causes, Correlates, and Consequences of Political Ideology | |
dc.type | dissertation or thesis | |
dc.description.embargo | 2022-06-08 | |
thesis.degree.discipline | Psychology | |
thesis.degree.grantor | Cornell University | |
thesis.degree.level | Doctor of Philosophy | |
thesis.degree.name | Ph. D., Psychology | |
dc.contributor.chair | Ferguson, Melissa J. | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Pizarro, David A. | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Krosch, Amy R. | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Gilovich, Thomas | |
dc.contributor.committeeMember | Goldstein, Michael H. | |
dcterms.license | https://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810 | |
dc.identifier.doi | https://doi.org/10.7298/s30j-sv35 |