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Confounding valence and arousal: What really underlies political orientation?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2014

Shona M. Tritt
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada.shona.tritt@utoronto.cawww.shonatritt.commichael.inzlicht@utoronto.cawww.michaelinzlicht.com
Michael Inzlicht
Affiliation:
University of Toronto Scarborough, Department of Psychology, Toronto, Ontario M1C 1A4, Canada.shona.tritt@utoronto.cawww.shonatritt.commichael.inzlicht@utoronto.cawww.michaelinzlicht.com
Jordan B. Peterson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3, Canada.peterson@psych.utoronto.cahttp://jordanbpeterson.com/

Abstract

The negative valence model of political orientation proposed by Hibbing et al. is comprehensive and thought-provoking. We agree that there is compelling research linking threat to conservative political beliefs. However, we propose that further research is needed before it can be concluded that negative valence, rather than arousal more generally, underlies the psychological motivations to endorse conservative political belief.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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