Many reasons have been offered for the increasing polarization of political attitudes. Now, a new studyuncovers a different, more personal catalyst for moving to the far left or right.
It finds people who have experienced significant adversity in their lives are more likely to gravitate toward an extreme spot on the ideological spectrum.
This appears to be an example of “compensatory affirmation” — the widely reported tendency of people to respond to uncertainty or fear by clinging more closely to the belief systems that give their lives meaning. It appears that need to believe moves many to a more extreme position.
A research team led by Daniel Randles of the University of Toronto and Roxane Cohen Silver of the University of California–Irvine presents its findings in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science. The researchers used data from the Societal Implications Study, whose 1,613 participants were a nationally representative sample of Americans.
[For more of this story, written by Tom Jacobs, go to https://psmag.com/adversity-in...12c037ac8#.x848244u2]
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