Premium
Why American conservatives and individuals from traditionalist cultures may share a preference for group uniformity
Author(s) -
Bettache Karim,
Chiu Chiyue
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
asian journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.5
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-839X
pISSN - 1367-2223
DOI - 10.1111/ajsp.12356
Subject(s) - collectivism , sociocultural evolution , autonomy , preference , ideology , social psychology , psychology , individualism , political science , law , politics , economics , microeconomics
American culture is known for its emphasis on freedom‐promoting values such as self‐determination and autonomy. Yet, a large segment of American society endorses a conservative ideology that seems to go against these values. In this article, we empirically show that conservatives’ weaker endorsement of autonomy values predicts a preference to be an amorphous entity in a tight, uniform group (Study 1A). We do so by implementing a novel measure of sociocultural tightness that is not based on self‐report items. We subsequently show that cultural (East–West) differences in this preference can be explained through a similar mechanism (Study 1B). Hence, we show that some cognitive processes of American conservatives are similar to those of individuals coming from more collectivist, non‐Western societies.