Conservatives’ more rigid thinking styles don’t seem to make them likelier than liberals to toe the party line
Conservatives tend to report more rigid thinking styles than liberals, but that doesn't appear to make them more likely to follow their party's lead. Across dozens of issues, both groups shifted toward their party's stance about equally.
Conservatives and liberals often appear to differ significantly in their thinking styles, but new research indicates that their responses to political endorsements are largely similar. While conservatives reported more rigid thinking styles in the study, both liberals and conservatives were equally likely to adjust their policy views to align with their respective party's stances.
The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, suggest that a key psychological process driving partisan opinions operates similarly across the ideological spectrum. The study, conducted at Michigan State University, involved researchers Aymin Triki, Abigail L. Cassario, and Mark J. Brandt. The team aimed to explore the psychological mechanisms behind "party cues," which are pieces of information indicating a party's support or opposition to a specific policy.
Previous explanations for party cues include they act as mental shortcuts, allowing voters to trust a group that shares their interests, and that people are motivated to be good group members, following a party endorsement to express loyalty and protect their social identity. The researchers examined whether these explanations held true for both liberals and conservatives.
While the party cue effect was small, on average, some policies elicited larger changes in support. The study aimed to test whether particular thinking styles might influence the strength of the party cue effect, but found no significant differences between liberals and conservatives.
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