ABSTRACT
The present study is concerned with the relevance of personality and social attitudes to a political issue, namely whether or not Britain should join the European Economic Community (the Common Market). Previous research in social psychology suggests a number of hypotheses that might be relevant to this particular issue.
Opposition to change is assumed to be one of the prime characteristics of people who are conservative in personality (Adorno et al., 1950). Thus our first hypothesis might be that British people who score highly on conservatism will tend to be more opposed to joining the Common Market. In addition, information concerning the nature of the conservatism dimension allows us to make certain more specific predictions.
Of the various sub-factors of conservatism, ethnocentrism would seem the most relevant for predicting attitudes to the Common Market. Ethnocentrism involves a dislike for foreigners and strangers generally, and since joining would imply a closer identity with Europeans, the move is unlikely to be welcomed by people who tend to be ethnocentric. Thus our second hypothesis might be that the primary contributor to the relationship between conservatism and opposition to the Common Market will be the ethnocentric component.
Changes that involve an element of doubt or risk are likely to give rise to feelings of insecurity, and such feelings in turn are likely to give rise to pessimism. This generalization seems to apply even when people are given a choice between the known status quo and some potentially more attractive, if unknown, alternative. In evolution theory terms, it is as if the status quo is felt to have greater survival value. While such reactions to uncertainty may be characteristic of the conservative, they may also be related to the amount of knowledge that a person feels he has on the issue in question. The expression “fear through ignorance” may serve to illustrate this point. Thus our third hypothesis might be that people who feel they know relatively little about the Common Market will be more opposed to joining.
A generalized opposition to change may also be motivated by feelings of loyalty for the past. Conservative people may resist changes in our way of life because they are more likely to identify with cultural traditions. However, because changes are always taking place anyway, it might be expected that such people would look back on the apparent advantages of the past with feelings of nostalgia (“the good old days”), and consequently regard life in Britain as deteriorating. Thus our fourth hypothesis might be that people who regard life in Britain as changing for the worse will be more opposed to joining the Common Market.
