Dispositional Fear and Political Attitudes

Human Nature 31 (4):387-405 (2020)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Previous work proposes that dispositional fear exists predominantly among political conservatives, generating the appearance that fears align strictly along party lines. This view obscures evolutionary dynamics because fear evolved to protect against myriad threats, not merely those in the political realm. We suggest prior work in this area has been biased by selection on the dependent variable, resulting from an examination of exclusively politically oriented fears that privilege conservative values. Because the adaptation regulating fear should be based upon both universal and ancestral-specific selection pressures combined with developmental and individual differences, the elicitation of it should prove variable across the ideological continuum dependent upon specific combinations of fear and value domains. In a sample of ~ 1,600 Australians assessed with a subset of the Fear Survey Schedule II, we find fears not infused with political content are differentially influential across the political spectrum. Specifically, those who are more fearful of sharp objects, graveyards, and urinating in public are more socially conservative and less supportive of gay rights. Those who are more fearful of death are more supportive of gay rights. Those who are more fearful of suffocating and swimming alone are more concerned about emissions controls and immigration, while those who are more fearful of thunderstorms are also more anti-immigration. Contrary to existing research, both liberals and conservatives are more fearful of different circumstances, and the role of dispositional fears are attitude-specific.

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,593

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Fear on the March.Roberto Escobar - 2009 - Iris. European Journal of Philosophy and Public Debate 1 (2):301-307.
A Philosophy of Fear.Lars Svendsen - 2008 - Reaktion Books.
Fear of enemies and collective action.Ioannis D. Evrigenis - 2008 - New York: Cambridge University Press.
A Causal Theory of Experiential Fear.Wayne Davis - 1988 - Canadian Journal of Philosophy 18 (3):459 - 483.
On being (not quite) dead with Derrida.Bob Plant - 2016 - Philosophy and Social Criticism 42 (3):320-338.
Miedo e incertidumbre.Olbeth Hansberg - 1994 - Critica 26 (76/77):155-184.
A special way of being afraid.Kathy Behrendt - 2010 - Philosophical Psychology 23 (5):669-682.
Daring to Fear: Optimizing the Encounter of Danger through Education.Alin Cristian - 2012 - Meta: Research in Hermeneutics, Phenomenology, and Practical Philosophy 4 (1):9-36.
Social fears in a globalized world.L. Gorohova - 2012 - Epistemological studies in Philosophy, Social and Political Sciences 2 (22):149-154.
Rationality and the Fear of Death in Epicurean Philosophy.Voula Tsouna - 2006 - Rhizai. A Journal for Ancient Philosophy and Science 1:79-117.
What are we frightened of?Barrie Falk - 1982 - Inquiry: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Philosophy 25 (2):165 – 198.
Exorcising fear, invoking fears: utopia and dystopia vis-à-vis an ancient passion.Manuela Ceretta - 2016 - Governare la Paura. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 9 (1).
Fear, Conflict and Identity in International politic affairs.Gian Filippo Speranza - 2015 - Governare la Paura. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies 8 (1).

Analytics

Added to PP
2020-12-03

Downloads
10 (#1,025,836)

6 months
4 (#319,344)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Citations of this work

No citations found.

Add more citations

References found in this work

The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture.Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby - 1992 - Oxford University Press. Edited by Jerome H. Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby.
Leda Cosmoides, and John Tooby, eds.Jerome H. Barkow - 1992 - In Jerome Barkow, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby (eds.), The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture. Oxford University Press.
The Authoritarian Dynamic.Karen Stenner - 2005 - Cambridge University Press.

View all 6 references / Add more references