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  3. Open versus Closed
  • Cited by 135
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    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      16 March 2017
      17 February 2017
      ISBN:
      9781316341452
      9781107120464
      9781107546424
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316341452
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.54kg, 298 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.44kg, 294 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Area Studies, Politics: General Interest, American Studies, American Government, Politics and Policy, Politics and International Relations
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    Subjects:
    Area Studies, Politics: General Interest, American Studies, American Government, Politics and Policy, Politics and International Relations
    Information

    Book description

    Debates over redistribution, social insurance, and market regulation are central to American politics. Why do some citizens prefer a large role for government in the economic life of the nation while others wish to limit its reach? In Open versus Closed, the authors argue that these preferences are not always what they seem. They show how deep-seated personality traits underpinning the culture wars over race, immigration, law and order, sexuality, gender roles, and religion shape how citizens think about economics, binding cultural and economic inclinations together in unexpected ways. Integrating insights from both psychology and political science - and twenty years of observational and experimental data - the authors reveal the deeper motivations driving attitudes toward government. They find that for politically active citizens these attitudes are not driven by self-interest, but by a desire to express the traits and cultural commitments that define their identities.

    Awards

    Winner, 2018 David O. Sears Best Book on Mass Politics Award, International Society of Political Psychology

    Reviews

    'A creative and original investigation into the puzzling, polarizing and often contradictory personality-based forces driving economic policy preferences. It’s a fascinating read and a major contribution to the field of political psychology.'

    Kevin Smith - University of Nebraska, Lincoln

    'Political psychologists know why people adopt particular stances on social issues but the sources of economic preferences remain murky. Johnston, Lavine, and Federico rectify this situation in one fell swoop with an inventive and compelling account of the reasons many people - especially the well-informed - frequently act contrary to their own economic self-interest.'

    John R. Hibbing - Co-Author of Predisposed: Liberals, Conservatives and the Biology of Political Differences

    'Open versus Closed develops a fascinating theoretical argument around a central dimension of personality: the disposition for being ‘open’ or ‘closed’ to uncertainty and risk. Integrating disparate strands of research in political science, economics, and psychology, Johnston, Lavine, and Federico articulate two alternative pathways for how being open versus closed shapes opinions on fundamentally important issues of social welfare, redistribution, and government intervention in the market. Through wide-ranging observational and experimental tests, the authors show that political engagement plays a critical role in leading the open vs. closed citizen to develop opinions that, among the politically unengaged, reflect what they need and that, among the politically engaged, reflect who they aspire to be. Amidst a politically polarized and economically stratified society, [this] work reminds us of the critical importance of political elites and citizen engagement in channeling how personality informs what citizens demand from government and why.'

    Cindy D. Kam - Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

    'This is a path-breaking study. It brings into view, arguably more dramatically than any previous work, the complexity - or perhaps better the perversity - of personality and political choice. Among other things, it is on the thinking of the politically aware and engaged, not the inattentive and indifferent, that personality, the emblem of the irrational, has its strongest impact.'

    Paul Sniderman - Stanford University

    'Open Versus Closed is certain to have a major impact on the field. Not only do Johnston, Lavine, and Federico comprise a veritable all-star team of co-authors, their book embodies the best features of political psychology. It doesn’t give short shrift to the political in its exploration of the psychological. Instead the emphasis on the psychological allows them to solve an important political puzzle about attitudes toward redistribution that no one else has been able to crack.'

    Marc J. Hetherington - Vanderbilt University, Tennessee

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