| Summary: | The present research
investigated the reason for mixed evidence concerning the relationship between
analytic cognitive style (ACS) and political orientation in previous research.
Most past research operationalized ACS with the Cognitive Reflection Test
(CRT), which has been criticized as relying heavily on numeracy skills, and
operationalized political orientation with the single-item self-placement
measure, which has been criticized as masking the distinction between social
and economic conservatism. The present research recruited an Amazon Mechanical
Turk sample and, for the first time, simultaneously employed three separate ACS
measures (CRT, CRT2, Baserate conflict problems), a measure of attitudes toward
self-critical and reflective thinking (the Actively Open-Minded Thinking Scale;
AOT), and separate measures of social and economic conservatism, as well the
standard measure of political orientation. As expected, the total ACS score
(combination of the separate measures) was negatively related to social, but
not economic, conservatism. However, the CRT by itself was not related to
conservatism, in parallel with some past findings, while the two other measures
of ACS showed the same pattern as the combined score. Trait reflectiveness
(AOT) was related negatively to all measures of political conservatism (social,
economic, and general). Results clearly suggest that the conclusion reached
regarding the ACS-political orientation relationship depends on the measure(s)
used, with the measure most commonly employed in past research (CRT) behaving
differently than other measures. Future research must further pursue the
implications of the known differences (e.g., reliance on numeracy vs.\ verbal
skills) of ACS measures and distinguish different senses of reflectiveness. %
changes in abstract Keywords: analytic cognitive style, actively open-minded
thinking, social conservatism, economic conservatism, political orientation,
dual-process model, cognitive reflection test.
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