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What is This?
Abstract
Whereas much social psychological research has focused on the conditions that lead to political conservatism, the current
research suggests that instilling a sense of intergroup interdependence can increase political liberalism and, in turn, foster concern
for universal welfare. Using both correlational (Study 1) and experimental (Study 2) methodologies, we find convergent support
for the novel hypothesis that perceived interdependence between groups in society increases peoples support for human rights
because it increases liberalism. In addition to establishing the hypothesized effect, we empirically distinguished the effect of
intergroup interdependence from that of intragroup (or interpersonal) interdependence, which was related to conservatism.
This research presents a novel demonstration of the effect of intergroup interdependence on political attitudes and fills a gap in
the literature on the conditions that lead to liberalism.
Keywords
intergroup interdependence, liberalism, human rights, ideological shift, policy support
The basic thought that guides these specific means of national The notion that peoples support for political policies
recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first reflects underlying psychological needs has garnered consider-
consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in able empirical support (see Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009).
all parts of the United States. (U.S. President Franklin D. Roose- The majority of this work has been inspired by a motivated
velt, First Inaugural Address, 1933) social-cognition account of political ideology and has focused
There is no issue of States rights or National rights. There is only on how adverse environmental factors, such as threat or uncer-
the struggle for human rights. (U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, tainty, lead individuals to adopt more politically conservative
Voting Rights Act Address, 1965) beliefs (e.g., Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, & Sulloway, 2003;
Landau et al., 2004; Nail, McGregor, Drinkwater, Steele, &
The policies adopted during the emergence of modern liberal- Thompson, 2009; Thorisdottir & Jost, 2011), presumably
ism in the United Statesstarting with Roosevelts New because these beliefs provide a sense of security, order, and
Deal and peaking under the Johnson administrations Great certainty. Less is known, however, about what conditions
Societynow form the foundations of American civil liber- might foster more liberal attitudes.
ties (Alterman, 2008; Milkis & Mileur, 2005; Shaw, 1988). Recent theoretical perspectives on the moral values of liberals
As illustrated in the above quotations, both of these leaders and conservatives have extended this model of ideological differ-
appealed to Americans sense of societal interdependence to ences in ways that could offer intriguing insights into the motiva-
promote domestic agendas that protected the rights of all tional underpinnings of liberalism. Specifically, Janoff-Bulman
citizens. In the current work, we empirically examine the rela- and colleagues (Janoff-Bulman, 2009; Janoff-Bulman & Carnes,
tionships between societal (or intergroup) interdependence 2013; Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Baldacci, 2008) have proposed
and political policy support. We propose a causal model that an approach/avoidance model to illuminate ideological divisions
might account, at least in part, for why these unprecedented in moral concern: Conservative values tend to be based in
(and since unrivaled) human rights policies were successfully
implemented during times when diverse groups of Americans
1
might have felt especially interconnectedon the heels of the Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
2
Great Depression or after the loss of a President. Specifically, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
we hypothesize that an increased salience of the dependency
Corresponding Author:
between various groups in society will lead people to embrace Jojanneke van der Toorn, Department of Psychology, Leiden University,
liberal viewpoints that, in turn, increase support for human PO Box 9555, Leiden, 2300 RB, The Netherlands.
rights. Email: j.m.van.der.toorn@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
avoidance-type motivations, and thus focus on protection, emphasizes hierarchy and distinctive roles, predicts greater con-
whereas liberal values are based in approach-type motivations servatism (Janoff-Bulman & Carnes, 2013). Vertical collectivism
and focus on providing. On the collective (or societal) level, con- is also positively related to authoritarianism (Kemmelmeier et al.,
servatives concerns center on protection from threat. Toward that 2003).
end, they value social order and promote notions of in-group We posit that intergroup interdependence will be related to
loyalty and cohesion (see also Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009). political liberalism insofar as liberal policies promote well-
Liberals, by contrast, are concerned about providing for the col- being for all groups in society (see Janoff-Bulman, 2009;
lective; in turn, they value social justice and promote notions Janoff-Bulman & Carnes, 2013), but that conservatives will
of intergroup interdependence and shared responsibility be more inclined toward interpersonal (or intragroup) interde-
(Janoff-Bulman & Carnes, 2013). pendence (see Graham et al., 2009). In two studies, we tested
This model highlights one important (yet understudied) dif- the possibility that liberalism and, in turn, support for policies
ference between liberals and conservativestheir divergent promoting human rights, would be enhanced when people
conceptions of group interdependence. Conservatives tend to perceive intergroup (but not interpersonal) interdependence.
focus on interdependence within their own groups as well as To our knowledge, no research has directly examined how
the boundaries between groups, whereas liberals focus on col- interdependence potentially affects political ideology nor stud-
lectivism and interdependence within (constellations of) ied the implications of this relationship for policy support. In
groups (Janoff-Bulman, 2009; Janoff-Bulman, Sheikh, & Study 1, we conducted a survey to test the mediation hypothesis
Baldacci, 2008). In line with this, research has demonstrated that perceived intergroup interdependence (but not interperso-
that there are ideological differences in the perceived scope nal interdependence) is positively related to participants
of category memberships, such that liberals have a more inclu- liberalism scores and, consequently, with support for universal
sive conception of group (e.g., society) as compared to conser- welfare. In Study 2, we used an experimental paradigm to
vatives (e.g., my ethnic group; Rock & Janoff-Bulman, 2010). establish causality.
The notion that intergroup interdependence is an important
ideological construct is in line with work in political science,
which highlights the fact that left-wing (vs. right wing) ideologies Study 1
tend to espouse a general view that human beings should live
together cooperatively without social distinctions (Magstadt, Method
2010) and emphasize interdependence between groups and Participants. Eighty-seven White American Mechanical Turk
nations (Monaghan, 1984). Consistent with this position, Stel and participants (age, mean [M] 30.17, standard deviation
Harinck (2011) found that a manipulation of interdependence (vs. [SD] 11.17; 67.8% male) completed an online survey in
independence) led to leftist voting behavior. Conservative ideol- exchange for monetary compensation.
ogies, by contrast, tend to emphasize either individualism or a dif-
ferent type of interdependenceinterdependence on others Procedure. Participants first rated their political orientation on a
within ones group. Moral foundations theory (Graham et al., scale ranging from 1 (extremely liberal) to 7 (extremely conser-
2009) proposes that conservatives, to a greater extent than liber- vative), which was reverse coded so that higher scores indicate
als, possess the binding moral value of community, referring greater liberalism (Jost et al., 2009). Participants perceived
to ones perception of connectedness to other in-group members. intergroup interdependence was then assessed with the follow-
In the present research, we examined how the nature of inter- ing statement: Different groups are needed for society to
dependence affects political orientations and ultimately support work (1 extremely disagree; 7 extremely agree). To
for human rights. In social psychological research, much of the measure participants sense of interpersonal interdependence,
research on interdependence has been in the context of work on we used Lu and Gilmours (2007) 21-item interdependence
the relational self, with a focus on how people define themselves scale (1 extremely disagree; 7 extremely agree; a
in terms of their social relationships, group memberships, and .86). This scale was designed to measure constructs at the
social roles (Gardner, Gabriel, & Lee, 1999; Markus & Kitayama, individual level to correspond to individualism-collectivism
1991; Trafimow, Triandis, & Goto, 1991; see Oyserman, Coon, & (IC) at the cultural level (p. 249) and includes items that
Kemmelmeier, 2002 for an overview). However, research in the reflect various aspects of this distinction, including conformity
area of intergroup relations demonstrates the importance of (e.g., I believe that people should behave appropriately
whether such feelings of connectedness occur within or across according to their different social status and roles), cohesion
group boundaries: Whereas perceptions of intergroup interdepen- (e.g., I have a strong identification with people close to
dence reduce bias (Dovidio & Gaertner, 2010; Sherif, Harvey, me), and identification with various in-groups (e.g., I
White, Hood, & Sherif, 1961), perceptions of greater interdepen- believe that family is the source of our self). Finally, to assess
dence on others within ones group promote intergroup bias support for universal welfare, we adapted the fixed resource
(Gaertner, Iuzzini, Witt, & Orina, 2006). In addition, in the cul- distribution task employed by Son Hing, Li, and Zanna
tural psychology literature, greater horizontal collectivism, which (2002; see also Haddock, Zanna, & Esses, 1993), which is
emphasizes greater cooperation with others generally, predicts designed to reduce the influence of social desirability respond-
greater liberalism, whereas greater vertical collectivism, which ing by requiring participants to allocate limited funds between
Variable M (SD) 1 2 3 4 5
desirable alternatives. Specifically, we told participants: the To examine whether the effect of intergroup interdependence
government is currently making its annual budget and has set on support for human rights was mediated by liberalism, we con-
aside a certain amount of money to be split between Human ducted bootstrapping analyses based on 1,000 bootstrap resam-
Rights Advocate groups and Road Maintenance. Last year, this ples, adjusting for interpersonal interdependence (Preacher &
money was split 50/50. We selected road maintenance as the Hayes, 2004). As predicted, liberalism significantly predicted
alternative to human rights because it is ideologically neutral support for human rights, b 6.18, SE 1.19, p < .001. In addi-
and considered generally valuable. Participants then indicated tion, with liberalism in the model, the direct effect of intergroup
on slider scales (which added up to 100%), what percentage the interdependence on support for human rights was no longer sig-
government should allocate for each issue this year.1 nificant, b 1.63, SE 1.41, p .250, suggesting mediation
(see Figure 1). The bias-corrected confidence interval did not
include zero [0.57; 4.26], confirming that the indirect path was
significant.
Results and Discussion Because these data were correlational, we were also able to
Table 1 lists the variable Ms, SDs, and intercorrelations. test the competing hypothesis that perceived intergroup inter-
Intergroup interdependence was not significantly related to inter- dependence would mediate the relationship between liberalism
personal interdependence, r(85) .03, p .782, suggesting that and support for universal welfare. This indirect effect was not
the two types of interdependence are independent constructs. significant [lower bound 0.16, upper bound 1.40]. In
To test our central hypothesis that concern for universal summary, these findings are consistent with our hypothesis that
welfare would be predicted by intergroup interdependence and intergroup interdependence uniquely predicts greater support
liberalism, we conducted two linear multiple regression analy- for human rights through liberalism. Although no support was
ses with intergroup interdependence and interpersonal interde- obtained for the opposite mediation pattern, experimental evi-
pendence predicting (1) liberalism and (2) support for human dence is required to definitively establish a causal relationship.
2
rights. As hypothesized, perceived intergroup interdependence This was done in Study 2.
significantly predicted political orientation, b .29, standard
error (SE) 0.13, p .022: The more participants believed
different groups are needed for society to work, the more they
identified as liberal. Perceived interpersonal interdependence
Study 2
also significantly predicted political orientation, but in the In this study, we used a word search task to prime either the indi-
opposite direction, b .56, SE 0.22, p .014: As pre- vidual or the collective and then measured peoples political
dicted, the more participants reported valuing conformity, ideology and support for universal welfare. Based on our findings
cohesion, and identification with their in-group, the more con- from Study 1, we predicted that a collective (vs. self-) focused
servative they were. A separate analysis predicting support for mind-set would lead to an increase in liberalism and that this
human rights from intergroup and interpersonal interdepen- effect would be mediated by increased intergroup interdepen-
dence yielded a significant positive association between dence. Because it is conceivable that the collective (vs. self)
perceived intergroup interdependence and support for human focused prime might also increase interpersonal interdependence
rights, b 3.43, SE 1.56, p .030, such that the more inter- (cf. Gardner et al., 1999), in which case we would expect to
group interdependence participants perceived, the more funds observe an increase in conservatism (as opposed to liberalism),
they allocated to human rights advocacy groups. Although the we also included a measure of interpersonal interdependence.
zero-order correlation between perceived interpersonal interde-
pendence and support for human rights was not significant (see
Table 1), the regression analysis that adjusted for intergroup Method
interdependence yielded a marginally significant association Participants. We recruited 223 White Americans from an online
between perceived interpersonal interdependence and support subject pool in exchange for entry into a cash prize lottery.
for human rights, b 2.67, SE 2.77, p .073. Thirteen participants did not complete the manipulation and
Variable M (SD) 1 2 3 4 5
responsibility of the many diverse groups in society should Dovidio, J. F., & Gaertner, S. L. (2010). Intergroup bias. In S. T. Fiske,
enhance support for human rights and related liberal policies. D. Gilbert, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), Handbook of social psychology
(Vol. 2, 5th ed., pp. 10841121). New York, NY: Wiley.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests Gabriel, S., & Gardner, W. L. (1999). Are there his and hers
types of interdependence? The implications of gender differences
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to
in collective versus relational interdependence for affect, behavior,
the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
and cognition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77,
642655.
Funding Gaertner, L., Iuzzini, J., Witt, M. G., & Orina, M. M. (2006). Us with-
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, author- out them: Evidence for an intragroup origin of positive in-group
ship, and/or publication of this article. regard. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 90,
426439.
Notes Gardner, W., Gabriel, S., & Lee, A. (1999). I value freedom but
we value relationships: Self-construal priming mirrors cultural
1. We also included an item asking endorsement of the statement, I
differences in judgment. Psychological Science, 10, 321326.
feel dependent on other groups in society. This measure, which
Graham, J., Haidt, J., & Nosek, B. A. (2009). Liberals and conserva-
focuses on an individuals personal connection to other groups was
tives rely on different sets of moral foundations. Journal of Person-
moderately correlated with the measure of perceived interdepen-
ality and Social Psychology, 96, 10291046.
dence between groups in society, r(85) .43, p < .001, and not
Haddock, G., Zanna, M. P., & Esses, V. M. (1993). Assessing the
correlated with participants political orientation, r(85) .12,
structure of prejudicial attitudes: The case of attitudes toward
p .282, nor with their support for human rights, r(85) .11,
homosexuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65,
p .327. Because this measure focused more on perceptions of
11051118.
personal dependence on other groups rather than on the interdepen-
Janoff-Bulman, R. (2009). To provide or protect: Motivational bases
dence between groups, we did not combine it with our item asses-
of political liberalism and conservatism. Psychological Inquiry,
sing intergroup interdependence. Using the mean of this item and
20, 120128.
our intergroup interdependence item slightly weakens the results;
Janoff-Bulman, R., & Carnes, N. C. (2013). Surveying the moral land-
for example, its bivariate relationships with liberalism and support
scape: Moral motives and group-based moralities. Personality and
for human rights are marginally significant, r(85) .20, p .070
Social Psychology Review, 17, 219236.
and r(85) .20, p .078, respectively. We also collected partici-
Janoff-Bulman, R., Sheikh, S., & Baldacci, K. (2008). Mapping moral
pants personal independence ratings using Lu and Gilmours
motives: Approach, avoidance, and political orientation. Journal of
(2007) 21-item scale (a .82), but had no specific predictions for
Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 10911099.
them. Personal independence did not significantly correlate with
Jost, J. T., Federico, C. M., & Napier, J. L. (2009). Political ideology:
any of the other variables, all rs < .15. These analyses suggest that
Its structure, functions, and elective affinities. Annual Review of
intergroup interdependence, our variable of primary interest, is
Psychology, 60, 307333.
conceptually distinct from forms of personal (in)dependence.
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. (2003). Polit-
2. As previous research indicated gender and age differences in inter-
ical conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological
dependent self-construal (e.g., Gabriel & Gardner, 1999; Watkins,
Bulletin, 129, 339375.
Mortazavi, & Trofimova, 2000), we also ran our analyses adjusting
Kemmelmeier, M., Burnstein, E., Krumov, K., Genkova, P.,
for participant gender and age. The pattern of results for intergroup
Kanagawa, C., Hirshberg, M. S., . . . Noels, K. A. (2003). Indi-
and interpersonal interdependence is nearly identical when adjusting
vidualism, collectivism, and authoritarianism in seven societ-
for these demographics, and the focal effects remain significant;
ies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 34, 304322.
gender only marginally significantly predicted support for human
Landau, M. J., Solomon, S., Greenberg, J., Cohen, F., Pyszczynski, T.,
rights, b 4.17, SE 2.29, p .073, suggesting that women were
Arndt, J., . . . Cook, A. (2004). Deliver us from evil: The effects of
somewhat more in favor of human rights advocacy than men were.
mortality salience and reminders of 9/11 on support for President
All other ts < 1. We also tested whether gender interacted with inter-
George W. Bush. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin,
group and interpersonal interdependence in predicting liberalism and
30, 11361150.
support for human rights, but it did not, all ts < 1.
Lu, L., & Gilmore, R. (2007). Developing a new measure of indepen-
3. Both tests had significant Levenes tests for variance equality, so
dent and interdependent views of the self. Journal of Research in
degrees of freedom were downward adjusted.
Personality, 41, 249257.
Magstadt, T. M. (2010). Understanding politics: Ideas, institutions,
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Politics, rigidity, and the role of self-regulation. Social Psychologi-
cal and Personality Science, 1, 2633. Jojanneke van der Toorn is an assistant professor in the Department of
Shaw, G. K. (1988). Keynesian economics: The permanent revolution. Psychology at Leiden University. Her research focuses on the social psy-
Aldershot, England: Edward Elgar. chological mechanisms implicated in social change and resistance to it.
Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W. R., & Sherif, C. W.
Jaime L. Napier is an assistant professor in the Department of
(1961). Intergroup conflict and cooperation: The Robbers Cave
Psychology at Yale University. Her research examines the social and
experiment. Norman: University of Oklahoma Book Exchange.
psychological antecedents and consequences of societal inequality.
Son Hing, L. S., Li, W., & Zanna, M. P. (2002). Inducing hypocrisy to
reduce prejudicial responses among aversive racists. Journal of John F. Dovidio is a professor in the Department of Psychology at
Experimental Social Psychology, 38, 7178. Yale University. His research interests are in stereotyping, prejudice,
Stel, M. A., & Harinck, F. (2011). Being mimicked makes you a pro- and discrimination; social power and nonverbal communication; and
social voter. Experimental Psychology, 58, 7984. altruism and helping.