Ideological labels function as social identities that shape group attitudes

Evidence

In Reading 11, Conover and Feldman (1981) propose that ideological labels like liberal and conservative are important to people as social identities, even if the common usage of these terms lacks philosophical coherence. Insofar as people value their affiliations with certain political groups, they can be expected to hold positive and negative attitudes toward other political groups. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1816

Categorization

• DEFINE: Frames ideology as social identity rather than coherent philosophy — a conceptual reframing worth holding onto.
• XREF: Echoes social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner) applied to the political domain. — connects to: Explaining social action requires studying opinion-group identification, not national identification — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 843; Indexical tie creation is inherently ideological and builds bottom-up group norms. — Mary Bucholtz and Kira Hall, Identity and Interaction: A…, 59; the MOC “The Enemy-Making Machine: Ours, True, and the Identity That Defends Both”
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1816