ABSTRACT

The study of authoritarianism and other personality theories of political attitudes is often dismissed a priori as an illegitimate, value-laden attempt to correlate general psychological profiles with specific ideological beliefs. The psychological study of ideological conservatism is one that invites controversy, but this circumstance does not mean that researchers should avoid it. This chapter discusses summon the unique analytical powers drawn from a variety of psychological theories of motivated social cognition to shed light on the anatomy of conservatism. A novel theoretical perspective suggests that conservative thoughts and behaviors may arise from motivations to make sense of the world and cope with existential crises inherent in the human experience. The practice of singling out political conservatives for special study began with Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford's landmark study of authoritarianism and the fascist potential in personality. Treating political conservatism solely as an individual-difference variable neglects growing evidence that situational factors influence the experience and expression of conservatism.