Attitudes and ideologies: how do political issues map on an ideological left-right scale? Extended abstract on political attitude dynamics

摘要

Agent based models of opinion dynamics can broadly be divided into dimensional, numerical and non-dimensional approaches. This divide can also be revealed in research on political ideologies. Whereas political science research on ideologies is focussed on a one-dimensional scale of left- and right wing attitudes, non-dimensional approaches in the psychology of attitude formation reveal (more or less consistent) clusters of attitudes about certain objects. Notwithstanding a left-right divide remains persistent across these clusters. However, what kind of specific attitudes are counted as left- or right wing remains to a large degree historically and culturally contingent. By relying on psychological theories of attitude formation a mechanism is identified how attitude clusters map on a one-dimensional ideological scale. This finding demonstrates that the dynamics of political attitudes reveals a co-evolution of culture and cognition. Bodily dynamics on timescales of milliseconds is shaped by historical contingencies evolving on timescales ranging up to centuries.