BIO

My name is Bethany and I am a second year student at FSU from Virginia. I am studying public health and international affairs, and am an aspiring physician with an interest in clinical, psychological research. This is my first time participating in research and I am excited to incorporate research into my college and future career experience.

Political Extremity, Conservatism, and Reliance on First Impressions

Abstract

Past research in political psychology has suggested that increased political extremism is associated with increased cognitive rigidity. Other research suggested that political conservatism specifically is related to higher cognitive rigidity. In this study, we investigated two possible associations between reliance on one’s first impressions of others, a form of cognitive rigidity in interpersonal interactions, and their political ideology, based on the rigidity of extreme ideologies theory and rigidity of conservative ideology theory. Considering these theories, we predicted that, respectively, either political extremity or political conservatism would relate to increased reliance on first impressions.
Using the Prolific survey platform we created and distributed an online survey that included questions on political ideology measured via a self-placement scale. Reliance on first impressions was measured via thirteen items we created and validated. A gender-balanced sample of 157 participants filled out the survey. A bivariate correlation analysis did not support the rigidity of extreme ideologies theory. However, a statistically significant correlation was found between conservatism scores and reliance on first impressions, supporting the rigidity of conservative ideology theory. Our results suggest that there is a positive linear association between conservative ideology and reliance on first impressions. These findings suggest that highly liberal people may not have high cognitive rigidity, at least interpersonally, going against the rigidity of extreme ideologies theory. Further, the trends found in this study could have implications for bias formation, further research would be needed to make an association between bias formation and increased reliance on first impression scores.

Keywords: psychology, political, bias