2025/10/13 by Yoav Ganzach, Yaacov Schul
Social Sciences · #Construct (python library) #Construct validity #Human geography #Ideology #Political Philosophy and Ethics #Politics #Quality of Life Research #Religion and Society Interactions #Scale (ratio) #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11205-025-03716-5
published in Social Indicators Research 180(3), 1545-1566 (Springer Science+Business Media)
openalex created_date 2025/10/13 · openalex publication_date 2025/10/13 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
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.