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Edited by Jonathan W. Schooler, University of California at Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, and accepted by the Editorial Board May 26, 2015 (received for review February 22, 2015)
Significance
Surprisingly little is known about the self-control consequences of individuals’ political ideologies, given the centrality of political ideology to people’s self-identity and the vitality of self-control to human functioning. This research addresses this unexplored gap by offering insight into the processes (freewill beliefs) and factors (the value of freewill for effective self-control) that lead both conservatives and liberals to demonstrate greater self-control. In doing so, these findings provide a platform by which to broaden our understanding of the underlying mechanisms impacting self-control as well as an alternative perspective for interpreting previously documented differences between conservatives and liberals (e.g., intelligence, academic success).
Abstract
Evidence from three studies reveals a critical difference in self-control as a function of political ideology. Specifically, greater endorsement of political conservatism (versus liberalism) was associated with greater attention regulation and task persistence. Moreover, this relationship is shown to stem from varying beliefs in freewill; specifically, the association between political ideology and self-control is mediated by differences in the extent to which belief in freewill is endorsed, is independent of task performance or motivation, and is reversed when freewill is perceived to impede (rather than enhance) self-control. Collectively, these findings offer insight into the self-control consequences of political ideology by detailing conditions under which conservatives and liberals are better suited to engage in self-control and outlining the role of freewill beliefs in determining these conditions.
Footnotes
- ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: joshua.clarkson{at}uc.edu.
Author contributions: J.J.C., J.R.C., E.R.H., A.S.O., F.R.K., and C.L. designed research; J.J.C. and A.S.O. performed research; J.J.C. and A.S.O. analyzed data; and J.J.C., J.R.C., E.R.H., and A.S.O. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. J.W.S. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1503530112/-/DCSupplemental.
Self-control and political ideology
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