Ideology and Moral Foundations
Political ideologies are central to the ways in which people make sense of social and economic relations as well as the ways that political parties’ structure more or less coherent policy platforms for them to choose between. Ideologies like liberalism, conservatism, fascism and libertarianism exist as formal systems of political thought and as psychological antecedents of individual attitudes and policy preferences. They are, in turn, the product of genetics, environmental influences, and other more distal psychological characteristics. As such, ideology is strongly related to the theory of moral foundations, which proposes that several innate and universally available psychological systems provide the foundations of “intuitive ethics.” The following texts explore the nature of ideology and moral foundations in order to make sense of political attitudes, behaviours, and competition.
Introduction to the topic:
Feldman, S. (2013). Political Ideology. In L. Huddy, D. Sears, and J. Levy (eds.), Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 591-626.
Haidt, J. (2013). The moral foundations of politics. In J Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion. London (UK): Penguin.
Category 1: Ideology
Converse, P.E. (1964). The nature of belief systems in mass publics. Critical Review, Vol.18 (1-3): 1-74.
Conover, P., and Feldman, S. (1981). The Origins and Meaning of Liberal/Conservative Self-Identifications. American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 25(4): 617-645.
Crowson H.M. (2009). Are all conservatives alike? A study of the psychological correlates of cultural and economic conservatism. Journal of Psychology, Vol. 143(5): 449-463.
Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., and Napier, J. L. (2009). Political ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual review of psychology, Vol. 60: 307-337.
Iyer, R., Koleva, S., Graham, J., Ditto, P., and Haidt, J. (2012). Understanding Libertarian Morality: The Psychological Dispositions of Self-Identified Libertarians. PLoS ONE, Vol. 7(8): e42366.
Kandler, C., Bleidorn, W., and Riemann, R. (2012). Left or right? Sources of political orientation: The roles of genetic factors, cultural transmission, assortative mating, and personality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 102(3), 633–645.
Feldman, S. and Johnston, C. (2014). Understanding Political Ideology. Political Psychology, Vol. 35: 337-358.
Category 2: Moral Foundations
McAdams, D. P., Albaugh, M., Farber, E., Daniels, J., Logan, R. L., and Olson, B. (2008). Family metaphors and moral intuitions: How conservatives and liberals narrate their lives. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 95(4): 978–990.
Haidt, J., Graham, J., and Joseph, C. (2009). Above and below left-right: Ideological narratives and moral foundations. Psychological Inquiry, Vol. 20: 110-119.
Day, M. V., Fiske, S. T., Downing, E. L., and Trail, T. E. (2014). Shifting Liberal and Conservative Attitudes Using Moral Foundations Theory. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 40(12), 1559–1573.
Dickinson, J.L., McLeod, P., Bloomfield, R., and Allred, S. (2016). Which Moral Foundations Predict Willingness to Make Lifestyle Changes to Avert Climate Change in the USA? PLoS ONE, Vol. 11(10): e0163852.
Rempala, D.M., Okdie, B.M. and Garvey, K.J. (2016). Articulating ideology: How liberals and conservatives justify political affiliations using morality-based explanations. Motivation and Emotion, Vol. 40(5): 703–719.
Online content
News:
Simon Choat in The Conversation – ‘‘Horseshoe theory’ is nonsense – the far right and far left have little in common’ (May 2017, Available here).
Daniel Liebermann and Michael Long in Politico Magazine – ‘How Brain Science Could Determine the Midterms’ (November 2018, Available here).
Joe Greenwood and Joe Twyman in the LSE’s Policy and Politics blog – ‘An asset to Boris Johnson: ideology in Brexit Britain’ (October 2019, Available here).
Jonathan Lis in Prospect Magazine – ‘The strange death of ideology’ (April 2020, Available here).
Javier Padilla and Belén Hípola in the LSE’s Euro Crisis in the Press - ‘Ideology and Polarization in times of Coronavirus’ (June 2020, Available here).
Podcasts:
Jonathan Haidt’s 2008 TED talk – ‘The moral roots of liberals and conservatives.’ Available here.
Jonathan Maynard’s Oxford Podcast – ‘Unlike Minds: Ideology, Political Violence and Armed Conflict’ (Available here).
Professor Beinhocker’s Oxford Podcast – ‘New economic and moral foundations for the Anthropocene’ (Available here).