Moral grandstanding is related to endorsing more extreme ideological positions; motivation by a desire to seek prestige is related to ideological extremism

Moral Grandstanding and Political Polarization: A Multi-Study Consideration. Joshua B. Grubbs et al. Journal of Research in Personality, August 24 2020, 104009. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2020.104009

Highlights
• Americans are increasingly polarized in their political ideology and reactions to political others.
• Moral grandstanding is related to endorsing more extreme ideological positions.
• Moral grandstanding motivated by a desire to seek prestige is related to ideological extremism.
• Moral grandstanding motivated by a desire to seek prestige is related to more polarized emotional reactions to political others.
• Moral grandstanding motivated by a desire to seek dominance is generally unrelated to extreme ideology or affect.

Abstract: The present work posits that social motives, particularly status seeking in the form of moral grandstanding, are likely at least partially to blame for elevated levels of affective polarization and ideological extremism in the U.S. In Study 1, results from both undergraduates (N=981; Mean age =19.4; SD=2.1; 69.7% women) and a cross-section of U.S. adults matched to 2010 census norms (N=1,063; Mean age =48.20, SD=16.38; 49.8% women) indicated that prestige-motived grandstanding was consistently and robustly related to more extreme ideological views on a variety of issues. In Study 2, results from a weighted, nationally-representative cross-section of U.S. adults (N=2,519; Mean age =47.5, SD=17.8; 51.4% women) found that prestige motivated grandstanding was reliably related to both ideological extremism and affective polarization.