Thoughts on ideology

Ideology, left versus right, and political psychology

I am in the process of designing an advanced undergraduate course on the theme of “Politics, Truth, and Ideology,” which I will teach next year. Although it will focus primarily on highly theoretical and philosophical works, it will—as with all my research and teaching—also engage with relevant scientific findings. Given this, I have been reading and re-reading various articles and books exploring the psychology and social science of political ideology.

One such article is “The Psychological and Social Foundations of Ideological Belief Systems” by Christopher M. Federico and Ariel Malka (Ch.17 here; free version here). It surveys many empirical findings concerning ideology and outlines a theoretical framework for making sense of them. Although I have some disagreements with their views and general approach (more on which below), it is an excellent article. This post will highlight and comment on some of its interesting ideas and findings.