Interpretability of the first two factors was high: social issues loaded primarily onto the first factor, while economic issues loaded primarily on the second factor, and cross-loadings between factors were low (see Tables 2 and 3). However, it is important to note that this scale was explicitly designed as its name indicates to provide primarily a measure of political conservatism, and so the extent to which this scale is wholly effective in research questions centred around political liberalism has not yet been determined. In this section I shall discuss the most common ways that conservatism has been measured, highlighting both advantages and limitations of the different approaches. It should not require specialist knowledge on the details of specific policies. As such, the version of the SECS presented here is unabashedly a scale that will at some point become outdated, for it is impossible to tap participants conservatism relating to specific political issues without tying the scale to a certain context. Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. No, Is the Subject Area "Social psychology" applicable to this article? Learn more about our academic and editorial standards. Developed in the early 19th century, the term is often used in contrast to the philosophy of modern social liberalism. It was not until the late 18th century, in reaction to the upheavals of the French Revolution (1789), that conservatism began to develop as a distinct political attitude and movement. Reliability analyses confirmed internal consistency, with a good overall Cronbachs alpha of .88 for the complete 12-item scale, an alpha of .70 for the 5-item economic conservatism subscale, and an alpha of .87 for the 7-item social conservatism subscale. Although their core concern remained the same as it had been since the New Deal, the conservatives of the 1950s sought to transform their case against . March 13, 2023, 3:16 PM PDT. Given that individuals can struggle to place themselves accurately on a single item dimension of conservatism, a further requirement is that the measure should be relatively easy for participants to respond to accurately. People who identify as "Socially liberal fiscally conservative" have a mixture of views, pertaining to both society as a whole as for the economy. Conservatives tend to oppose government intervention in order to promote social and economic equality, arguing that the free market will reward individuals according to their talent and hard work. Updates? Written informed consent was obtained electronically for all participants. They also are deeply conservative and reliably vote Republican. People with training in game theory are "smarter" (or less altruistic/cooperative) according to some narrow definition, but how many knives do they have righteously pointed at their backs in the real world? The originator of modern, articulated conservatism (though he never used the term himself) is generally acknowledged to be the British parliamentarian and political writer Edmund Burke, whose Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790) was a forceful expression of conservatives rejection of the French Revolution and a major inspiration for counterrevolutionary theorists in the 19th century. Based on empirical and theoretical considerations, 12 items shown to be important in representing both economic and social conservatism constituted the scale. 6 . In the early nineteenth century, most European . An ideology is a belief system that underpins a political or economic theory. As such, CFA confirmed that the model outlined in the EFA of a two-factor structure of the SECS was an appropriate fit, justifying its use as a scale. For example, an economic conservative would be against laws which regulate what . Self-reported ideology explained 52% of the variance in RWA, R2=.52, F (1,289)=307.31, p<.001, while SECS scores explained a similarly sized 58% of the variance in RWA, R2=.58, F (1,289) =405.74, p<.001. A new multi-item scale is required not to replace the singe-item scale, but to complement it. For example, Jost and colleagues [24] developed their Fair Market Ideology (FMI) scale, consisting of 25 items measuring the extent to which individuals endorse support of a fair market as a legitimate and fair economic system. Secondly, this scale was explicitly designed as a measure of political conservatism, given that much research highlights and focuses on conservatism as the referent object primarily to be explained. The measurement model fit the data well, 2 (52) =129.94, p <.001, 2 / df=2.50. 2.2. Corrections? Conservatism flourished under Harding as the president distributed rewards to big business and limited benefits for average American workers. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). In this article numerous problems with current measurements of conservatism are discussed, before a new 12-item scale to measure conservatism is proposed: the 12-item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS). I would like to thank Simon Lolliot for his invaluable help in confirming and running statistical analyses. It is of crucial importance in having a scale to measure conservative political ideology in individuals that one measures issues that are currently of relevance. And the recognition should be at the highest value. Recent compelling evidence suggests that they do [28]. Clear majorities of all other Republican-leaning groups say economic inequality is at least a moderately big problem, including 86% of Market Skeptic Republicans. This preference has traditionally rested on an organic conception of societythat is, on the belief that society is not merely a loose collection of individuals but a living organism comprising closely connected, interdependent members. The oblique direct oblimin rotation was chosen as factors were expected to correlate in measuring facets of conservatism, and using an orthogonal (e.g. Both combined and distinct measures, then, can be argued to be appropriate in different circumstances. I would like to thank Thomas Lowe for his useful suggestions on the manuscript as an educated layperson. This preference has traditionally rested on an organic conception of societythat is, on the belief that society is not merely a loose collection of individuals but a living organism comprising closely connected, interdependent members. In recent years, perhaps due to the difficulty of finding a modern and short conservatism scale, conservatism has often been measured by single item self report measures, requiring participants to rate how conservative or liberal they are on a 17 (or 19) scale [1], [5], [6]. Conservatism is an ideology that was first clearly articulated in opposition to the liberalism of the Enlightenment and French Revolution. Please select which sections you would like to print: Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University, Tempe. It has advocated less government regulation and more tax cuts, relying on the reasonably free hand of the private sector to provide the right mix of economic benefits. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082131, Editor: Pete Roma, Institutes for Behavior Resources and Johns Hopkins Univ, United States of America, Received: July 24, 2013; Accepted: October 21, 2013; Published: December 11, 2013. That government should run a year-over-year surplus, instead of a deficit, and save the money for future, military, economic, or natural disasters. The conservative thought of economists like MiltonFriedman, James Buchana. Analyzed the data: JE. As Treier & Hillygus note from their empirical investigation on this issue, while political rhetoric is clearly organised by a single ideological dimensionthe belief systems of the mass public are multidimensional ([29] - p.680). As such, to compare most effectively the relationship of conservatism with other psychological constructs it is important to use multi-item scales to avoid unfair bias due to problems of truncation. The American right is in one of its periodic fits of introspection and internecine dispute. At a practical level, the relationship between conservatism and authoritarianism depends on the context: an authoritarian in Cold War Russia was likely to support the Communist Party and so be anti-capitalist, while authoritarians in the U.S. at the same time were likely to be opponents of communism. In western culture, we think of ideologies as . Self-reported ideology explained 37% of the variance in prejudice, R2=.37, F (1,289) =168.19, p<.001, while SECS scores explained a lower 21% of the variance in prejudice R2=.21, F (1,289) =75.07, p<.001. Given that a key parameter for this scale was that it should be comparatively short (and therefore easily administered), a decision was made to try and limit items included in the final scale to 12. For example, in a 2006 essay, former Republican congressman and House Majority Leader Richard Armey noted that "There was a day when social . In this paper limitations of previous approaches to measuring conservatism have been discussed, showing that there is a strong theoretical and pragmatic need for a new multi-item scale of conservatism. The term conservative was introduced after 1815 by supporters of the newly restored Bourbon monarchy in France, including the author and diplomat Franois-Auguste-Ren, vicomte de Chateaubriand. Given the dynamic state of research in political psychology, it is important to have an appropriate scale to measure such differences in political attitudes on the left-right dimension. Recent years have seen a surge in psychological research on the relationship between political ideology (particularly conservatism) and cognition, affect, behaviour, and even biology. Similarly, there was a significant difference for social conservatism, t(181) =10.41, p<.001, with higher scores on the SECS for Republicans (M=8.14) than Democrats (M=4.66). Further, there were significant differences on economic conservatism SECS scores, t(181) =11.44, p<.001, with higher scores for Republicans (M=7.91) than Democrats (M=5.39). The KMO measure of sampling adequacy was .88, above the recommended value of .6, and Bartletts test of sphericity was significant: 2 (66) =1542.04, p<.001. Download. Importantly, using a single item dimension is especially unsuited to summarising the preferences of self-identified moderates since such individuals may be cross-pressured between their views on social and economic issues [29]. The National Conservatism conference has an unusual premise: that conservatism as traditionally understood in the United States has outlived its usefulness. Yes The chi-square ration for this CFA was 2.50, thus indicating good fit. As such, exploratory factor analysis supported the development of this 12-item scale of Social and Economic Conservatism (SECS), with items loading strongly onto either the social or economic factor, and good overall consistency for the complete 12-item scale (See Materials S1). Measuring conservatism in this way is an example of what is known in philosophy as a thick concept: a concept that has a descriptive content but that also has a negative evaluative load. In The Devils Dictionary (1906), the American writer Ambrose Bierce cynically (but not inappropriately) defined the conservative as a statesman who is enamored of existing evils, as distinguished from the Liberal, who wishes to replace them with others. Conservatism must also be distinguished from the reactionary outlook, which favours the restoration of a previous, and usually outmoded, political or social order. They put a high value on the importance of patriotism. Do people overestimate their political conservatism (or liberalism)? The first factor explained 43% of the variance (eigenvalue = 5.21), the second factor 13% of the variance (eigenvalue = 1.60), and the third factor 8% of the variance (eigenvalue = 1.01). It is for this reason that the SECS scale is proposed, and for this reason that the SECS is suggested to be an important and valuable addition to the political psychologists toolbox. Indeed, Zell and Bernstein specifically endorse the future use of objective measurements of political beliefs in research, concluding that it is advised that future research use more objective measures of political orientation to cluster respondents into groups ([28] p.5). To understand the psychology of political ideology, one must measure ideology in the most appropriate way. In line with this, the chi-square ratio was also included, where a ratio between 2 and 3 is considered acceptable fit [54]. 6. February 16, 2023 By Jack Butler. To pick just one example, in measuring conservatism as (strength of) partisan affiliation, it is implied that conservatism is primarily a matter of political social identification: one assesses how attached one is to the particular political group to which they belong. In particular, the single-item measure of conservatism showed good predictive power alongside the SECS, and so this study indirectly provides further support for this measures validity. Social, or cultural, conservatism refers to the preservation of ancient moral traditions of humanity and includes the assumption that political problems at bottom are religious and moral problems ([13] p.8). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082131.s001, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0082131.s002. Conservatives thus favour institutions and practices that have evolved gradually and are manifestations of continuity and stability. Although the chi-squared values were significant (suggesting potential poor fit) this is because type I error is extremely sensitive to sample size, which can increase artificially the chi-squared values. While there are crucial limitations of the different methods that demonstrate the need for a new multi-item scale, the use of a particular method must depend upon its suitability for the research question being addressed. For example, conservatives may stress the duty of individuals to society. Liberalism in the early 19th century held that progress came through applying the ideals of human rights, even at the expense of traditions and institutions. Yes Overall SECS scores were significantly correlated with SDO (r=.49, p<.001), as were scores on both the economic (r=.56, p<.001) and social conservatism subscales (r=.39, p<.001). It also means economic liberty, the freedom to own property and to allocate your own resources in a free market. However, as with SDO, it is not always possible to correctly infer political conservatism from high RWA scores. For example, Iyer (2011) found that conservatives scored lower on all BFI neuroticism items than liberals, Peterson and Maiden (1993) found that lower neuroticism was related to higher support. A second important problem with the single self-report political orientation item is that it does not effectively differentiate between individuals socially conservative and economically conservative beliefs [29], [30]. Despite this, however, the FMI is limited because of its length and detail. Reflection on how traditional scales of conservatism are used shows that an important condition of a new scale is that it represents contemporary political conservatism, with clear and specified items that have been shown to be representative of conservatism. [7, 20]). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Wrote the paper: JE. Yes After discussion of the use of long ideology scales, it is suggested that the new scale should follow from such ideological measures in tapping participants ideological beliefs, though in a shorter and more accessible form. . An essential prerequisite of conducting good psychological research is to have a good methodology, of which measurement of ones target construct is a fundamental part. Finally, when using these improvised scales it is often not specified which exact items were retained and which items removed, so that it is difficult to see precisely how conservatism was measured. For coverage of conservative ideas in the history of political philosophy, see political philosophy. Further, the third factor had only two items, and it is recommended that factors with fewer than three items should not be retained [48]. The SECS, then, is likely to require updating in 10 years time. Author of, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Arizona State University, Tempe. In measuring conservatism through measuring SDO and RWA, the concept (conservatism) acquires an evaluative load, since both SDO and RWA are conceptualised as measures of discrimination (SDO), aggression, and faulty reasoning (RWA). The order of items was randomised for each participant to control for potential order effects. The two items were I would be reluctant to make any large-scale changes to the social order and I have a preference for maintaining stability in society, even if there seem to be problems with the current system. Conservatism Examples Respect for Tradition - A central value of many conservatives is a desire to preserve traditional values. Conservation Economics is the use of economics to understand the costs and benefits of sustaining natural ecosystems. Finally, the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) was included, where values closer to 0 indicate good fit, and a RMSEA of .06 indicating good fit. Author of, Emeritus Professor of Political Science, London School of Economics. Institutions Preservation of institutions and resistance to changing them. Independent samples t-test revealed significant differences on overall SECS scores, t(181) =13.30, p<.001, with higher scores for Republicans (M=7.96) than Democrats (M=4.89). here. The twelve items retained can be seen to be representative of American conservatism in particular, given items such as gun ownership. Conservatism is the philosophy of the comfortable country house; conservatives believe above all in having a place that you can call home. Yes However, its also been heavily critiqued by progressives and liberals. A transaction can be deferred into the next . While this is necessary to tap the contemporary nature of conservative political ideology and is commendable for attempting to assess the degree to which individuals endorse conservative views, there are fundamental problems with such an approach. Scores were tied to multiples of 10, such that participants could respond with 10, 20, 30, and so on. Conservatives use it, more accurately, to describe an initial wave of thinkers and politicians who began as progressives or socialists, got "mugged by reality" as prominent neoconservative Irving. Seekprofessional input on your specific circumstances. This use of warmth ratings has been well implemented in previous work from social psychology [41], and allowed individuals to express their position towards the items while not requiring them to have any specific knowledge about policies. Examples of Conservatism Principle of Accounting. Indeed, psychologists who choose to use a scale often adapt such traditional measures, and therefore omit items they perceive to not be relevant [2], [14], [19]. Indeed, research suggests that individuals may in fact find it difficult to accurately place themselves on a self-report conservative-liberal dimension. Examples of Classical Conservative Values: Economic planning, state-based trade, social and class-based hierarchy, no individual property rights, state-based religion, protectionist, nationalist, no separation of church and state, limited freedom of speech, limited freedom of assembly, no right to a fair trial. For scale development, items that were reported by at least 15% of participants were included, meaning that items 15 to 22 were excluded. I have demonstrated that the SECS provides a good alternative to (though not a replacement of) existing measures of conservatism such as out-dated scales, long ideology scales, single item measures, or the use of inferring conservatism from individual differences measures. Next, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted, following the best practices recommended in the literature [42], [43], [44], [45]. It is notable that mean scores on the SECS were slightly above the scale midpoint, while mean self-reported overall conservatism (measured by the single item measure) were almost a whole scale point below the scale midpoint of 4.00 (M=3.14, SD = 1.71). We welcome feedback: you can select the flag against a sentence to report it. For example, Social Conservatives may also support a degree of government intervention in economic life for what they feel is to the benefit of the community, and as such will tend to support the concept of a social market economy to further this aim . Yes It is clear, then, that there is sufficient ambiguity and concern about existing measures of conservatism to demonstrate the importance of a new contemporary scale of conservatism that addresses such limitations. Of course, as Jost and others have argued (e.g. were greater than .32: [48]), and all variables had moderate to good loadings, with a minimum loading of .45 [44]. Citation: Everett JAC (2013) The 12 Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS). In such regard, the management of a company may manipulate accounting values to their advantage. Self-reported ideology explained 35% of the variance in social dominance, R2=.35, F (1,289) =152.09, p<.001, while SECS scores explained a smaller 24% of the variance, R2=.24, F (1,289) =89.57, p<.001. Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. Ideology is a desire to preserve traditional values underpins a political or economic theory duty of individuals to society the! 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