High degree of symmetry between the political left & right in their attitudes toward groups with dissimilar beliefs; people on the cultural & economic right seem to be more sensitive to value violations than people on the left

Right‐ and Left‐wing Prejudice Toward Dissimilar Groups in Cultural and Economic Domains. Gabriela Czarnek, Paulina Szwed, Małgorzata Kossowska. European Journal of Social Psychology, https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2548

Abstract: According to recent studies, people on both the political right and left show prejudice toward groups whose beliefs are in conflict with their own. This prediction applies both to cultural and economic dimensions of political beliefs. In three studies (N = 499) we demonstrate that people on both the cultural and economic right and left show negative attitudes toward groups on the other side of the given spectrum and that underlying this effect is the perception of value violation. In two out of three studies, we manipulated the extremity of target worldviews to further explore the causal chain between political beliefs, the perception of value violation and prejudice. Our results showed high degree of symmetry between the political left and right in their attitudes toward groups with dissimilar beliefs. However, although people on both sides of the political spectrum show prejudice toward each other, people on the cultural and economic right seem to be more sensitive to value violations than people on the left.