Left and Right: The Psychological Significance of a Political Distinction

This book brings together for the first time an updated, revised collection of influential essays and articles that capture some of the most exciting scientific and scholarly contributions to the topic of political ideology. John Jost tackles fundamental questions about how psychology, neuroscience, and societal factors impact political attitudes and group divisions. In what sense, if any, are ordinary citizens "ideological"? Is it useful to locate political attitudes on a single dimension of representation? Are there meaningful differences in the beliefs, opinions, and values of leftists and rights-or liberals and conservatives? How are personality traits related to ideological preferences? What situational or contextual factors contribute to liberal and conservative shifts in the general population? What are the implications of ideological polarization for the future of democracy? Drawing on Max Weber's concept of elective affinities, one of the world's leading political psychologists discusses the myriad ways in people choose ideas and ideas choose people.

Table of Contents:
TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface PART I: POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY IN HISTORICAL AND SCIENTIFIC CONTEXT Chapter 1: A psychological approach to the study of political ideology Chapter 2: The end of the end of ideology Chapter 3: Elective affinities: The intersection of "top-down" "bottom-up" processes PART II: IDEOLOGICAL DIFFERENCES IN PERSONALITY, COGNITIVE STYLE, AND MOTIVATION Chapter 4: Political conservatism as motivated social cognition Chapter 5: The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Dispositional and situational factors Chapter 6: Authoritarian aggression, group-based dominance, and the liberal conundrum PART III: THE FUTURE OF POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY Chapter 7: Ideological asymmetries and the essence of political psychology Chapter 8: The promise and pitfalls of political neuroscience Epilogue: The values of a political psychologist

About the Author :
John T. Jost is Professor of Psychology, Politics, and Data Science and Co-Director of the Center for Social and Political Behavior at New York University. He has received numerous awards for his research and writing, including the Carol and Ed Diener Award in Social Psychology. He has served on many editorial boards and executive committees of professional societies and is a Fellow of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and the Association of Psychological Science. Professor Jost is a past President of the International Society of Political Psychology and the recipient of an honorary doctorate from the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Review :
Jost's Left and Right: The Psychological Significance of a Political Distinction provides a timely, creative and valuable contribution to our understanding of political ideology. By tackling contentious and critical topics with comprehensive and meticulous care, including the use of neuroscience and the importance of ethical values in the study of politics, Jost offers a powerful and thought-provoking analysis of the meaning and importance of these forces in everyday individual lives. Left and Right is a must-read for all who are interested in political psychology. Written by a leader of the field, it provides a spirited and convincing case for the importance of the left-right dichotomy in politics. If like many social scientists you too have been content with embracing the Enlightenment idea that we are born tabula rasa and develop our political preferences by persuasion and socialisation, pick up this book and enjoy an exhilarating rollercoaster ride. Supported by evidence now too varied and abundant to ignore, Professor Jost offers the most comprehensive argument hitherto available that whether our carriage veers towards the political left or right heavily depends on our psychological makeup. It deserves to be a milestone in political psychology. In this book, John Jost has accomplished something extraordinary, a truly political psychology—a psychology not of self-interest or of in-group or "tribal" loyalty, but of the large-scale ideas, ideals, identities, and motivations that form the ideological frameworks within which individuals and groups situate themselves, orient thought and action, and seek justification. He makes an essential contribution to our understanding of ourselves and others, synthesizing "top down" doctrinal and structural analysis and "bottom up" affective and cognitive affinities to show the durability and explanatory power of the "Left"/"Right" division. Recent events demand such an understanding, and Jost's work should be essential reading not only for psychologists, sociologists, political scientists, and philosophers, but for anyone who cares about the direction of our societies.