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Ideological Asymmetries and the Determinants of Politically Motivated Reasoning
Name
10.1111-ajps.12624.pdf
Size
410.94 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
e8ae6d4a5896637eff07ee9abda9a897
Author(s)
Guay, Brian
Johnston, Christopher D.
Date Issued
June 23, 2021
Journal
American Journal of Political Science
Publisher
Wiley
Citation
Guay, Brian and Johnston, Christopher D. 2021. "Ideological Asymmetries and the Determinants of Politically Motivated Reasoning." American Journal of Political Science.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
A large literature demonstrates that conservatives have greater needs for certainty than liberals. This suggests an asymmetry hypothesis: Conservatives are less open to new information that conflicts with their political identity and, in turn, political accountability will be lower on the right than the left. However, recent work suggests that liberals and conservatives are equally prone to politically motivated reasoning (PMR). The present article confronts this puzzle. First, we identify significant limitations of extant studies evaluating the asymmetry hypothesis and deploy two national survey experiments to address them. Second, we provide the first direct test of the key theoretical claim underpinning the asymmetry hypothesis: epistemic needs for certainty promote PMR. We find little evidence for the asymmetry hypothesis. Importantly, however, we also find no evidence that epistemic needs promote PMR. That is, although conservatives report greater needs for certainty than liberals, these needs are not a major source of political bias.
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12624
