The Psychology of Conservatism (Routledge Revivals)

Glenn Wilson

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• ISBN:
  9781135094447
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicologia
• Subtopic: Storia e teoria della psicologia

First published in 1973, The Psychology of Conservatism explores attitudes, their measurement, their structure and dynamics, and the personality traits apparently underlying attitude patterns. It examines the link between differing attitudes and discusses characteristic patterns and syndromes. The book focuses on the origins and dynamics of a major factor called "liberalism – conservatism" which is found to account for much of the variance in attitudes amongst different people. Contributors review previous studies relating to personality and attitude before engaging in new studies and proposing their own theories to explain the conservative attitude. The book introduces provocative theoretical ideas and provides a valuable examination of an important psychological and social attitude syndrome. This book will be of interest to researchers in personality and social psychology, sociology and political science and education.

Part 1

CONCEPT

1	The Concept of Conservatism GLENN D. WILSON Institute of Psychiatry, University of London

I. Introduction

II. The “Ideal” Conservativev

A. Religious fundamentalism

B. Pro-establishment politics

C. Insistence on strict rules and punishments

D. Militarism

E. Ethnocentrism and intolerance of minority groups

F. Preference for the conventional in art, clothing, institutions, etc.

G. Anti-hedonistic outlook and restriction of sexual behaviour

H. Opposition to scientific progress

I. Superstition

III. Organization of Attitudes

IV. The Distribution of Conservatism

V. Four Views of Conservatism

A. Conservatism as resistance to change

B. Conservatism as “playing safe”

C. Conservatism as a quantification of the “generation gap”

D. Conservatism as internalization of “parental” prohibitions

VI. A Brief Outline of the Book

References

Introduction

This book overlaps two major areas of psychology: social psychology, and personality. On the one hand it is about attitudes : their measurement, factorial structure, origins and functions. On the other, it is about a particular characteristic or “dimension” of personality that is inferred on the basis of the organization of such attitudes. “Conservatism” is conceived as a general factor underlying the entire field of social attitudes, much the same as intelligence is conceived as a general factor which partly determines abilities in different areas. This general factor is manifested as a largely positive pattern of group intercorrelations amongst different attitude areas, and is presumed to reflect a dimension of personality similar to that which has previously been described in the semi-scientific literature in terms of a variety of labels such as “fascism”, “authoritarianism”, “rigidity”, and “dogmatism”.

The term “conservatism” is preferred not only because it provides the best overall description of the factor concerned, but also because it is relatively free of derogatory value-tone. Most people would quite reasonably take exception to being described as “fascist”, “authoritarian” or “dogmatic”, whatever their actual orientation, but would probably be happy to admit to being “conservative” if they were, in fact, positioned towards this end of the spectrum. Likewise, the term “liberal” is usually perfectly acceptable to individuals located towards the other end of the dimension. (The terms “liberal” and “conservative” may, however, tend to have a mild negative connotation to individuals at the opposite pole.)

An example may serve to show how a relatively non-evaluative term is more generally acceptable. In threatening to close the schools of Georgia rather than comply with Government plans for racial integration, Governor Maddox was quoted as follows:

School desegregation is part of the Communist plot to overthrow this country. They are destroying America through sex education and not letting teachers pray and read the Bible. (Guardian, 25. 7. 79.)

Those who agree with this statement might call Maddox morally sound, forthright, enlightened, and patriotic; those who disagree might call him fascist, authoritarian, bigoted, or even paranoid. Everybody, regardless of his own orientation, would agree that he is conservative.

Because the terms conservative and liberal happen, in Britain, to correspond to the names of major political parties, it may be necessary to point out that we are not particularly concerned with the prediction of voting behaviour or with politico-economic conservatism (although these areas may later be found to have some relevance). The term conservatism is used in the broader, more literal, sense of resistance to change and the tendency to prefer safe, traditional and conventional forms of institutions and behaviour. To a large extent voting behaviour and political opinions are presumed to reflect habit, social class, and personal expediency rather than any characteristic of personality. Thus, when political opinions are involved in what follows, they are of interest only in so far as they throw light on a more fundamental personality characteristic which is presumed to vary considerably amongst supporters of each of the major political parties. On the other hand, followers of certain minor political parties, such as the National Front, may well be fairly homogenous with respect to this dimension. In any case, the question of conservative-liberal personality differences amongst supporters of various political parties is an empirical one that is easily investigated once suitable methods of measurement have been developed.

The meaning of the dimension as it will be used here is probably best illustrated by considering the position of certain organizations in relation to it. In the U.S. the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society are widely recognized as conservative organizations, as are the National Front, the Gideons, and the Monday Club in Britain, even though the major aims and interests of these groups are far from completely overlapping. Some groups that are generally agreed to be relatively liberal might include the Humanist Society, the acting profession, social scientists, and the “Samaritans”.

II. The “Ideal” Conservative

We may now list some of the attitude clusters which would be expected to characterize the extreme or “ideal” conservative, while acknowledging that very few organizations or individuals will correspond to this picture in every detail. (For purposes of illustration the views of one individual who does approximate to this ideal are shown in Fig. 1.) The following description is based largely on the popularly held image or “stereotype” of the typical conservative. The extent to which this picture is valid will be investigated in the later chapters, in which empirical evidence is presented and evaluated.

A. RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM

Religion has long been recognized as a conservative force in society, i.e. as an institution resistant to progressive change. Thus the Roman Catholic Church and the more puritan of Protestant denominations have been at the forefront of protests against a great many new ideas and trends in social behaviour, from the heliocentric theory of the universe and evolution theory to birth control and stage nudity. However, since it must be recognized that not all religious persons and organizations are characteristically resistant to change (some of them are actually the products of change themselves), it seems reasonable to suggest that the ideal conservative will adhere to religion of a dogmatic and fundamental kind, e.g. believing in the absolute authority of the established church and the literal truth of the Bible, including such notions as miracles and Divine retribution. Incidentally, it may be that religious beliefs of this kind are today found more commonly among laymen or members of the congregation than among theologians and clergy. Also, it hardly needs to be mentioned that the religion need not be Christianity; it may be any established religion or even a prevailing ideology such as Maoism.

Reprinted with permission from the Brighton and Hove Herald

The colonel pleads for drastic action

I was taking a summer stroll along Hove sea-front when I perceived two lewd youngsters in a compromising position on the beach. I could not bring myself to go over to reprimand them and there was not a police officer in sight.

I felt my only recourse was to air my views in public through your columns. I have been a regular visitor to your lovely town since I was a lad—65 years ago—and I have never seen anything so shocking. What made it worse was that I was with my widowed sister, a rate-payer of this town, whom I was not able to shield from this disgusting spectacle.

Isn't it time all decent people got together to put a stop to this orgy of sex and drug-taking which our young people are encouraged to indulge themselves in by our permissive society’?

Of course, there are many good youngsters in our community—witness the Boy Scouts and Girl Guides—and these undesirable elements constitute only a minority. But this scourge on our towns will grow like a cancer and unless the very fabric of our society is to be completely eroded by these subversive, Communist inspired louts, everything that we of the older generation fought in two World Wars for—democracy, Christian morals, decency, respect for authority and unselfish service to others—will have been in vain.

I suggest Compulsory National Service for all young people aged between 16 and 24. A good dose of discipline never did anybody any harm. And if these pseudo intellectuals persist in wearing long hair and throwing all standards of hygiene to the four winds, we should give them a dose of their own Red medicine by interning them in correction camps.

It may sound drastic but these are drastic times; we are fighting for the very survival of our way of life. When I was a junior subaltern in the trenches many years ago now we found internment very effective in dealing with these subversive blighters.

I urge all like-minded people to campaign for a ban on pop-music—not only is it an infernal row but it is used by these subversive elements in our society to plant their foreign ideas in our young people's minds. Then we should mount a concerted campaign to get people back in the churches. Without God all hope is lost.

And we should deport all foreigners who are doing our society no good — students, jazz musicians and (yes, I am not afraid to say it) disgruntled coloured folk who don't apreciate what we British have done for them.

The time will come when decent people cannot walk the streets without fear of being molested. Crime is on the upsurge and only stiffer penalties and the return of capital punishment will act as a deterrent. I think young people could do no worse than follow the example of our own Royal Family who go about their task without complaint.

Name and Address Supplied

FIG. 1
Letter to a provincial English newspaper illustrating many of the
characteristic views of the “ideal” conservative.

B. PRO-ESTABLISHMENT POLITICS

Another widely accepted characteristic of the ideal conservative is his commitment to political organizations which favour maintenance of the satus quo, if necessary, by the use of force and strict censorship. In Western countries this would mean “right-wing” extremism, e.g. the National Front in Britain, the “Colonels' regime” in Greece. In present day Czechoslovakia, conservative individuals would be j...