Abstract
Four studies tested the hypothesis that psychological essentialism
underlies political conservatism. Study 1 (n = 263) finds correlational
evidence that essentialist thinking about the U.S. is correlated with
support for three conservative ideologies (RWA, SDO, nationalism) and
conservative policies regarding religion, taxes, the environment and
immigration. Experiments show that prompting participants to think about
the essence of the U.S. increases support for RWA and nationalism, but
not SDO. Study 2 (n = 164) compares an essential to a non-essential
framing of the U.S., while Study 3 (n = 150) compares essential framings
of the U.S. to another concept (music). Parallel mediation analyses show
that support for RWA and nationalism mediates the relationship between
essentialism and support for conservative policy positions. Study 4 (n =
174) directly replicates Study 2 and goes further to test mediators,
showing that perceptions of intergroup threat mediate the effect of an
essential U.S. framing on RWA, while national identification mediates
the effect on nationalism. We discuss how the different ways liberals
and conservative Americans conceive their nation impacts political
polarization. Data and materials are publicly available at
(https://osf.io/srvxk/?view_only=3222ba5c750d4362b68b25ea80195d67)