Conservatives are modestly but significantly less cognitively complex than liberals

Evidence

Using these and other methods, researchers have investigated a number of possibilities, including the “rigidity of the right” hypothesis, the “extremist-asideologue” hypothesis, and the “contextual” hypothesis that political deviants are more sophisticated and knowledgeable than centrists (e.g., Gruenfeld, 1995; Sidanius, 1985, 1988; Tetlock, 1983; Wilson, 1973). A quantitative meta-analytic review by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski, and Sulloway (2003) found that the most consistent evidence favors the “rigidity of the right” hypothesis that conservatives are significantly but modestly less cognitively complex than liberals in general. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 130

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the ‘rigidity of the right,’ ‘extremist-as-ideologue,’ and ‘contextual’ hypotheses as the competing theories tested through cognitive complexity coding.