THE ROUGH GUIDE TO PSYCHOLOGYstudents, Gordon Hodson of Brock University found that those who
scored higher on interpersonal disgust tended to hold more right-wing
authoritarian beliefs, had a less-than-human perception of immigrants
and more negative attitudes to marginalized groups such as the poor.
Sometimes circumstances can interact with people’s psychological
motives, shifting their position on the ideological spectrum. For
example, there’s evidence that terrorism can increase the appeal of
conservatism. The Republican President George W. Bush grew in popu-
larity after the 9/11 terror attacks, and research by Jost with people in
or near the World Trade Center at the time of the attacks found that
38 percent reported becoming more conservative during the ensuing
eighteen months, compared with just 12 percent saying they’d become
more liberal. Similar results have been replicated in the laboratory. In
2009, Paul Nail at the University of Arkansas showed that asking liberal
students to think about their own death led them to express their
opinions with more conviction – a characteristic usually associated with
conservatism – and to show more sympathy for homophobia. There’s
less research on situational factors that can induce liberalism, but
travel and education have both been cited as catalysts for a more liberal
political view.
The science of persuasion
Politicians are wising up to psychology. Several psychologists and
behavioural economists acted as advisors to Barack Obama during his
campaign to become US President. One of Obama’s first appointments
was behavioural economist Cass R. Sunstein, who was put in charge
of the Office of Information and Regula-
tory Affairs. Sunstein is the co-author with
Richard H. Thaler of Nudge (2008), a highly
influential book about how psychologically
inspired political interventions can influ-
ence people to make decisions that are
better for themselves and for society – an
approach that the authors dub libertarian
paternalism. For example, they suggest that
governments should exploit the fact that
people often stick with whatever is their default choice. If you want more
people to donate their organs or to sign up to private pension plans, the
thinking goes, all you need to do is to make these options the default, so
“Nudges are not
mandates. Putting
the fruit at eye level
counts as a nudge.
Banning junk food
does not.”
&ƌŽŵNudge;ϮϬϬΘͿ