In Hong Kong, political liberals think more analytically than conservatives

What is it about?

Do people from different political ideologies think as if they're from different cultures? We gave people in Hong Kong a measure used to test cultural differences in thought style. Liberals tended to think more analytically, which is more common in individualistic Western cultures and emphasizes abstract thought and formal logic. In contrast, conservatives (especially social conservatives) tended to think more holistically, which is more common in collectivistic and non-Western cultures. Holistic thought emphasizes context, relationships, and intuition. In a follow-up study, we primed people to think analytically or holistically and then asked them to read an article about a political issue. Analytic thought increased support for liberal policies, whereas holistic thought increased support for conservative policies.

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Photo by Alison Pang on Unsplash

Photo by Alison Pang on Unsplash

Why is it important?

These results suggest that the political divide is quite literally a cultural divide. People on opposite sides of the political spectrum think as if they were from different cultures. What's more, these thought styles were enough to change how people process political debates. The effect of the thought style priming was stronger among younger participants (under 21 years old) and weaker among older participants (above 21 years old). This could be because younger people are still forming their political opinions, whereas older people have more established opinions.

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