Ideological constraint declines sharply and non-elite publics hold disconnected idea clusters.

Evidence

It is our primary thesis that, as one moves from elite sources of belief systems downwards on such an information scale, several important things occur. First, the contextual grasp of “standard” political belief systems fades out very rapidly, almost before one has passed beyond the percentage of the American population that has completed standard college training. Increasingly, simpler forms of information about “what goes with what” (or even information about the simple identity of objects) turn up missing. The net result, as one moves downward, is that constraint declines across the universe of idea-elements, and that the range of relevant belief sy stems becomes narrower and narrower. Instead of a few wide-ranging belief systems that organize large amounts of specific information, one would expect to find a proliferation of clusters of ideas among which little constraint is felt, even, quite often, in instances of sheer logical constraint. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1875

Categorization

• XREF: Central building block for the reader’s question: if mass publics cannot sustain ‘what goes with what’ links, then wholesale diffusion of a strategic-essentialist package to a collective would fragment into disconnected attitude clusters — bearing on whether strategic identity performance is available collectively or only individually. — connects to: Ideological consistency declines sharply from elites to mass publics — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1962; Most people lack coherent ideological belief systems.; Ideology research salvaged its concept by shifting to elites, polarized countries, and analytic thinkers. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 125 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Ideological consistency declines sharply from elites to mass publics #corroborates (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1962
• Most people lack coherent ideological belief systems. #corroborates (0.85)
• Elite ideological battles can pass almost unwitnessed by mass publics #exemplifies (0.80) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1970
• Ideology research salvaged its concept by shifting to elites, polarized countries, and analytic thinkers. #expands (0.75) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 125