Jost John T, Baldassarri Delia S, Druckman James N
Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY USA.
Department of Sociology, New York University, New York, NY USA.
Nat Rev Psychol. 2022;1(10):560-576. doi: 10.1038/s44159-022-00093-5. Epub 2022 Aug 1.
Healthy democratic polities feature competing visions of a good society but also require some level of cooperation and institutional trust. Democracy is at risk when citizens become so polarized that an 'us versus them' mentality dominates. Despite a vast multidisciplinary literature, no coherent conceptual framework of the microlevel dynamics that increase or decrease polarization has been presented. In this Review, we provide a conceptual framework to integrate scientific knowledge about cognitive-motivational mechanisms that influence political polarization and the social-communicative contexts in which they are enacted. Ego-justifying and group-justifying motives lead individuals to defend their own pre-existing beliefs and those of their in-group, respectively. However, a distinct class of system-justifying motives contributes to asymmetric forms of polarization. Whereas conservative-rightist ideology is associated with valuing tradition, social order and maintenance of the status quo, liberal-leftist ideology is associated with a push for egalitarian social change. These cognitive-motivational mechanisms interact with social influence processes linked to communication source, message and channel factors, all of which might contribute to increased or decreased polarization. We conclude with a discussion of unanswered questions and ways in which our framework can be extended to the study of culture and institutions.
健康的民主政体具有对美好社会的相互竞争的愿景，但也需要一定程度的合作和制度信任。当公民两极分化到“我们与他们”的心态占据主导时，民主就面临风险。尽管有大量多学科文献，但尚未提出一个关于增加或减少两极分化的微观层面动态的连贯概念框架。在本综述中，我们提供了一个概念框架，以整合关于影响政治两极分化的认知动机机制以及这些机制发挥作用的社会交流背景的科学知识。自我辩护和群体辩护动机分别导致个体捍卫自己先前存在的信念和其所属群体的信念。然而，一类独特的系统辩护动机促成了不对称形式的两极分化。保守右派意识形态与重视传统、社会秩序和维持现状相关联，而自由左派意识形态则与推动平等主义社会变革相关联。这些认知动机机制与与传播源、信息和渠道因素相关的社会影响过程相互作用，所有这些都可能导致两极分化加剧或减轻。我们最后讨论了未解决的问题以及我们的框架可扩展至文化和制度研究的方式。
