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Them and Us: Hidden Ideologies‐Differences in Degree or Kind?
Author(s) -
Unger Rhoda K.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
analyses of social issues and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.479
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1530-2415
pISSN - 1529-7489
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-2415.2002.00025.x
Subject(s) - abdication , ideology , covert , social dominance orientation , authoritarianism , social psychology , dominance (genetics) , politics , scale (ratio) , psychology , sociology , political science , democracy , law , philosophy , linguistics , biochemistry , chemistry , physics , quantum mechanics , gene
This article looks at three measuring instruments—the Right‐Wing Authoritarianism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale, and the Attitudes About Reality Scale—used to examine covert ideology and its relationship to social and political beliefs and behaviors. These scales share similar ideological components involving abdication of moral responsibility to an outside agent, belief that one's own ideology represents the only form of truth, and negative beliefs about individuals who are not members of one's own group. Evidence is provided to suggest that radical fundamentalists and some groups within U.S. society share ideological beliefs that differ in degree rather than kind. These beliefs make it easy for them to divide the world into “us” and “them” and exacerbate the present conflict.