the effect of life events on personality, authoritarianism ...€¦ · opponents are ominous:...

The Effect of Life Events on Personality, Authoritarianism, Conservatism, and Language:

Developing a Model of Beliefs across CulturesMark A. Hamilton, University of Connecticut and Chulalongkorn University

Jirayudh Sinthuphan, Chulalongkorn University

Shaw Hong Ser, Chulalongkorn University

The Problem• In the West, conservatives

are known for their verbal aggressiveness

• Right-wing media such as Fox News, NewsMax, and WorldNetDaily are populated by personalities like Rush Limbaugh, Morning Joe, Imus in the Morning, and Glenn Beck

Strident Personalities

• These personalities often go beyond staking out their traditionalist position on issues to zealously savage their political opponents.

• Such conservative media attacks fit the definition of verbal aggression (Infante & Wigley, 1986).

Conservative Aggression• Campaign positioning by Republican

Presidential candidates in this year’s primary race are rife with aggressive rhetoric against minorities

• Donald Trump’s invectives against Mexicans, Muslims, and the disabled.

• Consequences of broadcast mauling of centrist and left-wing political opponents are ominous: verbal aggression has been shown to lead directly to physical aggression

Trend in the West• Across the West, there has been a

rise in rampage killings (Hamilton, 2016) that are driven by a traditionalist agenda.

• A majority of states in America host militia movements.

• Armed militias have become a menace in Oregon, Texas, and other states, leading to armed standoffs or even violent confrontations with the government.

Home Grown Terror

• The Oklahoma City bombings were carried out by perpetrators with a conservative agenda.

• The Breivik massacres in Norway are another prime example of right-driven violence.

East on West Aggression• Conservative assaults are not,

however, confined to the West.

• Islamic extremist groups with an eye toward instituting sharia law or even establishing a sharia caliphate present a real and present danger to the West.

• Attacks by Islamic State militants have targeted France, Belgium, England, and the United States.

East on East Violence• The campaign of terror by Islamic

militants is even more ferocious in the East.

• Daily bombings and attacks occur throughout the middle-east –in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel, Lebanon, Egypt, Turkey, and Libya.

• Such bombings or rampage killings have also occurred further south and east -- in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and of course Thailand.

Research Questions

RQ1: Why is there persistent, global covariation between conservatism and verbal aggression (along with subsequent physical aggression)?RQ2: Do different aspects of conservatism differentially influence verbal aggression?

The Positive Correlation

• It could be a sign of a spurious relationship between conservatism and verbal aggression

• It could be a sign of a causal relationship in which conservatism increases verbal aggression

ConservatismVerbal

Aggression

ConservatismVerbal

Aggression

Cultural Conservatism• People form their beliefs based on

interpersonal interaction with others first, and then extend those beliefs to groups of others, finally extending those beliefs to more general policy for organizations and cultures

• It is plausible, even likely, that these different aspects of conservatism may not have the same impact on verbal aggressiveness

InterpersonalExperience

GroupAffiliation

Organizational Policy

A Confluence Model

• Based on Belief Systems Theory (Hamilton, 2012; Hamilton & Hample, 2011; Hamilton & Mineo, 1996, 1999; Hamilton & Tafoya, 2012; Rokeach, 1956, 1958, 1960; Tafoya & Hamilton, 2012)

• Proposes three affect systems that operate as a physiological substrate for processes that constrain effects across belief systems

The Structure of Beliefs

• Belief systems organized along a central-peripheral dimension based on degree of neural connectedness

• Personality is the most central, attitudes the most peripheral with ethno-logics providing a justification of attitudes from personality

EthnologicsPersonality

TemperamentSelf-Concept

Social Consequences

Attitudes & Language BehaviorsAuthoritarianJustification

EmotionalJustification

CriticalJustification

Competencies

Affect Systems

• Individualistic: gives rise to selfish, negative emotions

• Cooperative: gives rise to prosocial, positive emotions

• Homeostatic: governs homeostasis of basic physiological process and by extension emotional balance



Social Consequences

Attitudes & Language BehaviorsCompetencies

RationalJustification


AuthoritarianJustification

Individualistic Affect System

Cooperative Affect System

Homeostatic Affect System

The Impact of Life Events

• Stress is a trigger for the individualistic affect system

• Achievement is a trigger for the cooperative affect system

• Background context serves as a basis for the homeostatic affect system

Stressors

Life Events

Variable Chains

• Individualistic affect: depression to schizotypy to hostility to verbal aggression

• Cooperative affect: pride to empathy to social bonding to verbal immediacy

• Buffered individualistic: neuroticism to egocentrism to anxiety to equivocation

• Buffered cooperative: self-esteem to narcissism to contentment to verbal collaboration



Social Consequences

Attitudes & Language BehaviorsStressors

Achievements

Background Context

Life Events

RationalJustification



PhysicalAggression

VerbalAggression

Depression Hostility Ethnocentrism

SocialBonding

AffectionVerbal

ImmediacyPride

EconomicConservatism

Anxiety AvoidanceEquivocationNeuroticismReligious

Conservatism

VerbalCollaboration

NegotiationContentmentSelf

Esteem

PoliticalConservatism

Stressors

+

+

+

Achievements

-

Trauma

NeedHindrance

SocialUndermining

Triumph

NeedFacilitation

SocialSupport

Background

MediaExposure

Setting

Life Events

Age

MaleSex

Maturation

-

U

-.19

Depression

SelfEsteem

Neuroticism

.40

Pride

-.30-.57

-.16

.21

.45

+

+ +

+

Simplified Model

SocialUndermining

VerbalAggression

SocialUndermining

VerbalAggression

PhysicalAggression

PhysicalAggression

Trauma

Trauma

Person A

Person B



Social Consequences

Attitudes & Language Behaviors

PhysicalAggression

VerbalAggression

Depression HostilitySchizotypy

AnxietyEgocentrism

.35

.59

.67

AvoidanceEquivocation

SocialBonding

AffectionVerbal

Immediacy

VerbalCollaboration

NegotiationExtraversion

.78

.49

.16

.26

.38

-.20

-.50

SelfEsteem +Narcissism

.82

+

-.55 -.36-.44-.47

-.54

Neuroticism .40

.40

.40

.49

Pride Empathy+

Note. Path coefficient estimates based on past studies.

+

.38

-.64 .27 -.43

CriticalJustification



Authoritarianism

Emotionalism

Rationalism

+/-

.31

++ +

Ethnocentrism



.54

-.77

.19

.67

.40

.60

.36

.18 Anti-dogmatism

.15

+

.68

.38

.34- -

.37

.30

SexualConservatism

ReligiousConservatism+

Sexual Conservatism

Ethnocentrism Religious Conservatism

Political Conservatism

ReligiousConservatism

SexualConservatism



Ethnocentrism

Cultural Conservatism

Authoritarianism

3. Extension of the Cultural Conservatism Model.

.67

.60

.36.40

.77

Anxiety

Hostility

.61

InterpersonalExperience

GroupAffiliation


+

+

+

+ +

VerbalAggressiveness

PhysicalAggression

.38

BehavioralRigidity

.69

Dogmatism

Tribalism as Stunted Social Bonding

-.15

.54

.31

Sexual Morality

-.38


SexualConservatism



Ethnocentrism

Cultural Conservatism

Authoritarianism

.67

.60

.36.40

.77

Anxiety

Hostility

.61InterpersonalExperience

GroupAffiliation


+

+

+

+ +

VerbalAggressiveness

PhysicalAggression

.38

Dogmatism

Tribalism as Stunted Social Bonding

-.15

.54

.31

Sexual Morality

-.38

++

++

++

Predation

Militarism+

-

BehavioralRigidity

Dogmatism

Authoritarianism


.74

.78

.69

United States

RMSE = .05, c2(3,100) = .91, p = .82

Data from Crano (1970)


.40 .68 .73

.28

Authoritarianism

Figure 3. The Effect of Authoritarianism on Political Conservatism, from the 1970s Studies.

The NetherlandsEngland New Zealand

RMSE = .08, c2(1,279) = 1.74, p = .44

RMSE = .11, c2(1,200) = 1.46, p = .35

RMSE = .11, c2(2,357) = 2.06, p = .36

Data from Wilson (1970) Data from Wilson and Patterson (1970)

Authoritarianism Authoritarianism






SexualConservatism

SexualConservatism

SexualConservatism

.56

.42

.20

.16

.61

.15.47.51

.41 .45

.73

.33.48

.48

.31.18

the effect of life events on personality, authoritarianism ...€¦ · opponents are ominous:...

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