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Testing the effects of pathogen threat and sexual strategies on political ideology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 September 2020

Natalie J. Shook  and
Benjamin Oosterhoff
Natalie J. Shook*
Affiliation:
West Virginia University and University of Connecticut
Benjamin Oosterhoff
Affiliation:
Montana State University
*
Correspondence: Natalie J. Shook, University of Connecticut, School of Nursing, 231 Glenbrook Road, Storrs, CT 06269. Email: natalie.shook@uconn.edu
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Abstract

Disgust has been consistently associated with greater political conservatism. Two explanations have been proposed for this link. According to a pathogen threat model, disgust serves a pathogen-avoidance function, encouraging more conservative ideology, whereas a sexual strategies model suggests that this link is explained by variability in short-term versus long-term mating goals. In two preregistered studies using a college student and community sample (total N = 1,950), we examined whether experimentally manipulating pathogen threat and mate availability produced differences in political ideology and whether these differences were explained by disgust and sociosexual attitudes. Across both studies, we did not find evidence that manipulating pathogen threat or mate availability resulted in change in political ideology. In Study 1, manipulating mate availability was indirectly associated with greater political conservativism through stronger sociosexual attitudes that favor monogamy. These findings failed to replicate in Study 2. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.

Keywords

Pathogen threatbehavioral immune systemsexual strategiespolitical ideologydisgust
Type
Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 39 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue: Disgust and Political Attitudes , Fall 2020 , pp. 187 - 199
Copyright
© Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 2020

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