ABSTRACT
Chapter 3 presents the new theoretical model probed in the research volume. It gives detailed descriptions of research on three research areas often applied in political psychology: first, the personality trait authoritarianism; second, social pain theory and affective intelligence theory; and third, the role of individuals’ socioeconomic backgrounds for attitude formation. The integration of all three approaches into a single model for the formation of attitudes towards the “West” within Tamil Nadu leads to the formulation of the following two hypotheses: (1) the higher an individual’s authoritarianism the stronger his/her negative attitudes towards the “West,” (2) the higher an individual’s socioeconomic status the more likely are negative attitudes towards the “West.” The model claims that in a society with a comparatively low permeability of traditional social hierarchies the variables authoritarianism and socioeconomic status predict attitude towards the “West” to a significant degree. The model predicts that the two variables can counterbalance in practice: High socioeconomic status and low authoritarianism lead to ambivalent or mixed attitudes towards the “West,” just as low socioeconomic status and high authoritarianism do.
