What is it about?
Research has documented a "political divide" on environmental issues, describing more proenvironmental attitudes and behaviours amongst left-wing (or liberal) than right-wing (or conservative) citizens. However, the specific psychological components that underlie this divide remain underexplored. This study explores the role of several socio-cognitive components known to be associated with political orientation. It reveals that higher right-wing authoritarianism, higher social dominance orientation, lower future thinking and lower superordinate (European) identity, together explain up to half of the effect of political orientation. Other factors, however, were not significantly related to proenvironmental views (belief in a just world, system justification, and ingroup -British- identity).
Featured Image
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash
Why is it important?
This work is important because it advances past research by informing which psychological routes may be useful for interventions and persuasion to bridge the political divide on environmental issues.
Perspectives
By identifying and quantifying the role of four socio-cognitive components that underlie the divide, we are able to suggest ways forward and interventions that could target them directly. Such interventions potentially increase the acceptance of proenvironmental measures amongst right-wing individuals without necessarily conflicting with conservative values, thus avoiding reactance and increasing openness to change.
Fanny Lalot
Universitat Basel
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Look past the divide: Social dominance, authoritarianism, future thinking, and superordinate identity underlie the political divide on environmental issues, Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology, January 2022, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.cresp.2022.100062.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
