@article{ref1,
title="The politics of fear: is there an ideological asymmetry in existential motivation?",
journal="Social cognition",
year="2017",
author="Jost, John T. and Stern, Chadly and Rule, Nicholas O. and Sterling, Joanna",
volume="35",
number="4",
pages="324-353",
abstract="A meta-analysis by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway (2003) suggested that existential needs to reduce threat were associated with political conservatism. Nevertheless, some maintain that fear plays as prevalent a role on the left as the right. In an attempt to resolve this issue, we reviewed evidence from 134 different samples (N = 369,525) and 16 countries--a database 16 times larger than those previously considered. Although the association between fear of death and conservatism was not reliable, there was a significant effect of mortality salience (r =.08-.13) and a significant association between subjective perceptions of threat and conservatism (r =.12-.31). Exposure to objectively threatening circumstances, such as terrorist attacks, was associated with a &quot;conservative shift&quot; at individual (r =.07-.14) and aggregate (r =.29-.66) levels of analysis. Psychological reactions to fear and threat thus convey a small-to-moderate political advantage for conservative leaders, parties, policies, and ideas.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0278-016X",
doi="10.1521/soco.2017.35.4.324",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1521/soco.2017.35.4.324"
}