TY - JOUR
T1 - Opposition to equality and support for tradition as mediators of the relationship between epistemic motivation and system-justifying identifications
AU - Federico, Christopher M.
AU - Ergun, Damla
AU - Hunt, Corrie
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors also thank the Institute for Social Science Research at Arizona State University for funding the CPS survey used in Study 2.
PY - 2014/7
Y1 - 2014/7
N2 - Individuals with a high need for cognitive closure, or a preference for knowledge that is certain and clear, tend to adopt conservative system-justifying ideologies. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the intervening orientations responsible for this relationship. While conservatism is anchored in values that both support tradition and oppose equality, we suggest that the need for closure is linked primarily with the former. In three studies, we found (a) that the need for closure is more strongly related to support for tradition than opposition to equality, and (b) that the indirect effect of the need for closure on conservatism is stronger via the former than the latter. By clarifying the links between the need for closure and multiple antecedents of ideology, these findings provide new insight into the psychological foundations of political belief by suggesting that the need for closure is not equally relevant to all aspects of system justification.
AB - Individuals with a high need for cognitive closure, or a preference for knowledge that is certain and clear, tend to adopt conservative system-justifying ideologies. Nevertheless, few studies have examined the intervening orientations responsible for this relationship. While conservatism is anchored in values that both support tradition and oppose equality, we suggest that the need for closure is linked primarily with the former. In three studies, we found (a) that the need for closure is more strongly related to support for tradition than opposition to equality, and (b) that the indirect effect of the need for closure on conservatism is stronger via the former than the latter. By clarifying the links between the need for closure and multiple antecedents of ideology, these findings provide new insight into the psychological foundations of political belief by suggesting that the need for closure is not equally relevant to all aspects of system justification.
KW - conservatism
KW - epistemic motivation
KW - ideology
KW - system justification
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U2 - 10.1177/1368430213517273
DO - 10.1177/1368430213517273
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84993783381
SN - 1368-4302
VL - 17
SP - 524
EP - 541
JO - Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
JF - Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
IS - 4
ER -