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Dispositional Fear and Political Attitudes.

Peter K Hatemi¹, Rose McDermott²

¹Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA, USA.

Human Nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)

|December 3, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Dispositional fears are not exclusive to political conservatives. This study reveals that non-political fears differentially influence political attitudes across the ideological spectrum, challenging previous assumptions.

Keywords:

Attitudes Disposition Evolution Fear Ideology Politics

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Political Science
Evolutionary Biology

Background:

Previous research suggested dispositional fear is primarily linked to political conservatism.
This perspective may oversimplify fear's evolutionary role, which extends beyond political threats.
Prior studies might have been biased by focusing only on politically charged fears.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the relationship between non-political fears and political ideology.
To examine if fear elicitation varies across the ideological spectrum based on specific fear-value domains.
To challenge the notion that fears strictly align with political party lines.

Main Methods:

Surveyed approximately 1,600 Australians using a subset of the Fear Survey Schedule II.
Analyzed the influence of fears lacking political content on political attitudes.
Correlated specific fears (e.g., sharp objects, death, thunderstorms) with political and social stances.

Main Results:

Non-political fears significantly influence political attitudes across the ideological spectrum.
Fears of sharp objects, graveyards, and public urination correlate with social conservatism and reduced support for gay rights.
Fear of death correlates with increased support for gay rights.
Fears of suffocating and swimming alone relate to concerns about emissions and immigration.
Fear of thunderstorms correlates with anti-immigration sentiment.
Both liberals and conservatives exhibit different fear patterns, indicating attitude-specific fear roles.

Conclusions:

Dispositional fears are not exclusive to one political group; both liberals and conservatives exhibit distinct fear profiles.
The role of dispositional fears in shaping political attitudes is attitude-specific, not monolithic.
Fear's evolutionary basis is complex, influenced by universal and ancestral pressures, as well as individual differences, leading to varied ideological expressions.