Ideology Strength Versus Party Identity Strength: Ideology Strength Is the Key Predictor of Attitude Stability

Felicity M Turner-Zwinkels; Mark J Brandt

doi:10.1177/01461672231189015

Ideology Strength Versus Party Identity Strength: Ideology Strength Is the Key Predictor of Attitude Stability

Felicity M Turner-Zwinkels, Mark J Brandt

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We investigate the relationship between attitude instability and both party identity strength and ideology strength. We test the explorative hypotheses that higher party identity strength (H1) and ideology strength (H2) predict more attitude stability using intensive longitudinal data collected in the United States every 2 weeks over 1 year (Study 1, N = 552) and in the Netherlands over 6 months (Study 2, N = 1,670). We found mixed support for H1: In the United States, there was no association between party identity strength and attitude stability. In the Netherlands, people with stronger party identity had more stable attitudes. We found stronger support for H2: Individuals with a stronger ideology than average had more stable attitudes in the United States and the Netherlands. The context-dependent nature of relations is discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	125-138
Number of pages	14
Journal	Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Volume	51
Issue number	1
Early online date	3 Aug 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672231189015
Publication status	Published - Jan 2025
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by NOW and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 822166.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

Funding

The authors would like to thank Tornike Korkotashvili for his help in developing research ideas and writing the analysis script for Study 1. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by NOW and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 822166. The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by NOW and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 822166.

Keywords

attitude stability
attitudes
ideology
party identity

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10.1177/01461672231189015Licence: CC BY-NC

Cite this

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title = "Ideology Strength Versus Party Identity Strength: Ideology Strength Is the Key Predictor of Attitude Stability",

abstract = "We investigate the relationship between attitude instability and both party identity strength and ideology strength. We test the explorative hypotheses that higher party identity strength (H1) and ideology strength (H2) predict more attitude stability using intensive longitudinal data collected in the United States every 2 weeks over 1 year (Study 1, N = 552) and in the Netherlands over 6 months (Study 2, N = 1,670). We found mixed support for H1: In the United States, there was no association between party identity strength and attitude stability. In the Netherlands, people with stronger party identity had more stable attitudes. We found stronger support for H2: Individuals with a stronger ideology than average had more stable attitudes in the United States and the Netherlands. The context-dependent nature of relations is discussed.",

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note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work is financially supported by the NORFACE Joint Research Programme on Democratic Governance in a Turbulent Age and co-funded by NOW and the European Commission through Horizon 2020 under grant agreement No. 822166. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.",

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doi = "10.1177/01461672231189015",

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AU - Brandt, Mark J

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N2 - We investigate the relationship between attitude instability and both party identity strength and ideology strength. We test the explorative hypotheses that higher party identity strength (H1) and ideology strength (H2) predict more attitude stability using intensive longitudinal data collected in the United States every 2 weeks over 1 year (Study 1, N = 552) and in the Netherlands over 6 months (Study 2, N = 1,670). We found mixed support for H1: In the United States, there was no association between party identity strength and attitude stability. In the Netherlands, people with stronger party identity had more stable attitudes. We found stronger support for H2: Individuals with a stronger ideology than average had more stable attitudes in the United States and the Netherlands. The context-dependent nature of relations is discussed.

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Ideology Strength Versus Party Identity Strength: Ideology Strength Is the Key Predictor of Attitude Stability

Abstract

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