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Ideological Social Identity: How Psychological Attachment to Ideological Groups Shapes Political Attitudes and Behaviors

Devine, Christopher John

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2011, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Political Science.

Spatial conceptualizations of ideology dominate the political science literature. In this dissertation, I challenge the comprehensiveness of such conceptualizations, and the standard self-placement measure associated with them, by analyzing the social identity components of ideological identification. My theoretical motivation for this analysis is Social Identity Theory (SIT), which posits that individuals often view valued social groups as extensions of self-identity, which in turn motivate group-based thought and action. SIT is highly influential within the social science literature, and it has become increasingly influential in political science. Yet scholars have never examined the potential for ideological social identity and what effects it might have on political attitudes and behavior, by itself and in combination with other politically-relevant social identities.

In this dissertation, I use two original surveys and data from the 1984-2008 American National Election Studies (ANES) to study the credibility and empirical value of a social identity approach to ideological identification. My analysis indicates that ideological social identity (ISI) represents a distinct dimension of ideological identification not adequately captured by the standard ideological self-placement measure. In the mass public, and particularly among party elites, feelings of psychological attachment to an ideological in-group are common today and they have become increasingly common over the past quarter-century. For approximately one-quarter of the mass public, and one-third of party elites, ideological social identity even exceeds the strength of partisan social identity. What is more, ISI is somewhat stronger among conservatives and it clearly becomes stronger in response to electoral competition.

Most importantly, ideological social identity influences a variety of important political attitudes and behaviors. ISI significantly impacts evaluations of political in-groups and out-groups; as ISI becomes stronger, inter-group bias toward ideological groups, partisan groups, and ideological sub-groups within parties also becomes stronger. ISI also causes ideological constraint to increase, because, I argue, individuals with strong ISI are likely to seek out and follow in-group behavioral cues in order to maintain group norms and a stable sense of social identity.

Finally, I find strong evidence of an interaction effect whereby ideological social identity conditions ideological self-placement’s relevance to vote choice in various elections. Across most experimental and actual elections, and each of the 1984-2008 presidential elections, self-placement’s effect on vote choice is significant only when ISI is at least moderate in strength. As ISI becomes stronger, self-placement’s effect on vote choice becomes greater. These findings support my argument that integrating the ISI and self-placement scales yields an exceptionally comprehensive measure of ideological identification more capable than traditional measures of precisely estimating ideology’s behavioral significance.

Together, these analyses attest to the credibility as well as theoretical and empirical value of accounting for psychological attachment to ideological groups when evaluating the nature and political significance of ideological identification. I discuss the scholarly contributions of this dissertation, and the many ways in which future research might expand and improve upon my analysis.

Kathleen McGraw, PhD (Committee Chair)
Herbert Weisberg, PhD (Committee Member)
Paul Allen Beck, PhD (Committee Member)
289 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Devine, C. J. (2011). Ideological Social Identity: How Psychological Attachment to Ideological Groups Shapes Political Attitudes and Behaviors [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1305968870

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Devine, Christopher. Ideological Social Identity: How Psychological Attachment to Ideological Groups Shapes Political Attitudes and Behaviors. 2011. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1305968870.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Devine, Christopher. "Ideological Social Identity: How Psychological Attachment to Ideological Groups Shapes Political Attitudes and Behaviors." Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1305968870

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)