Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun 14;10(24):eadn2965.
doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adn2965. Epub 2024 Jun 12.

Ambivalent attitudes promote support for extreme political actions

Joseph J Siev  1   2 , Richard E Petty  1
Affiliations

Ambivalent attitudes promote support for extreme political actions

Joseph J Siev et al. Sci Adv. .

Abstract

Political extremism varies across people and contexts, but which beliefs will a person support through extreme actions? We propose that ambivalent attitudes, despite reducing normative political actions like voting, increase support for extreme political actions. We demonstrate this hypothesized reversal using dozens of measures across six studies (N = 13,055). The effect was robust to relevant covariates and numerous methodological variations and was magnified when people's attitudinal or ideological positions were more polarized. It appears to occur because being conflicted about political issues can feel psychologically uncomfortable, making extreme actions more appealing. Notably, this emerged when people thought ambivalence was justified, whereas leading them to consider ambivalence unjustified suppressed the effect, suggesting that ambivalent people are coping with but not necessarily trying to reduce their ambivalence. These results highlight the interplay of affective and cognitive influences in extreme behavior, showing that beliefs people feel justifiably conflicted about can promote extremism.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.. Partisan ambivalence and support for partisan violence.
Associations between partisan ambivalence and SPV (above dashed line) as well as voting intentions (below dashed line) beyond the effects of key statistical controls. Error bars are 95% CIs.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.. Subjective ambivalence correlations with behavioral willingness as a function of behavioral extremity.
Error bars are 95% CIs.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.. Subjective ambivalence partial correlations with behavioral willingness as a function of behavioral extremity.
Controlling for midpoint and acquiescence response biases. Error bars are 95% CIs.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.. Donation to extreme environmental organizations task.
The sum of the three categories was required to equal $10.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.. Extreme behavioral willingness as a function of ambivalence and ambivalence justification condition.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.. Moderate behavioral willingness as a function of ambivalence and ambivalence justification condition.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. H. G. Lavine, C. D. Johnston, M. R. Steenbergen, The Ambivalent Partisan: How Critical Loyalty Promotes Democracy (Oxford Univ. Press, 2012).
    1. Thornton J. R., The impact of elite polarization on partisan ambivalence and indifference. Polit. Behav. 35, 409–428 (2013).
    1. Kaplan K. J., On the ambivalence-indifference problem in attitude theory and measurement: A suggested modification of the semantic differential technique. Psychol. Bull. 77, 361–372 (1972).
    1. Priester J. R., Petty R. E., The gradual threshold model of ambivalence: Relating the positive and negative bases of attitudes to subjective ambivalence. J. Pers. Soc. Psychol. 71, 431–449 (1996). - PubMed
    1. M. M. Thompson, M. P. Zanna, D. W. Griffin, Let's not be indifferent about (attitudinal) ambivalence, in Attitude Strength: Antecedents and Consequences, R. E. Petty, J. A. Krosnick, Eds. (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., 1995), pp. 361–386.