Ideologists, Non-Ideologists and the Construct Validity of One-Dimensional Measures of Political Ideology

Yoav Ganzach () and Yaacov Schul ()
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Yoav Ganzach: Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Management
Yaacov Schul: The Hebrew University, Department of Psychology

Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, 2025, vol. 180, issue 3, No 10, 1545-1566

Abstract: Abstract Previous research has shown that a large part of the population lacks a coherent system of political beliefs (Converse, 1964). Yet, studies in social and political psychology often examine the relationship between ideology and political attitudes/behavior on the basis of a one-dimensional self-placement liberal-conservative or left-right ideology scale that assumes that all of the participants have a coherent ideology. In the current paper we suggest a simple method by which ‘non-ideologists’ could be identified in studies that are based on a one-dimensional ideology scales, and demonstrate that excluding them from the analysis. improves the validity of our conclusions regarding the role of ideology in political psychology. We conclude with a discussion of the pros and the cons of such exclusion.

Keywords: Political ideology; Libera-conservative; Left-right; Political knowledge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s11205-025-03716-5

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