Liberal and Conservative Political Stereotypes in Terms of Belief Response Hierarchies

Abstract

The stereotypes associated with liberals and conservatives were determined in a sample of 100 college students using an adjective checklist based on an open-ended pilot study. Stereotypes were expressed as a hierarchy of difference scores between the adjectives as beliefs concerning liberals and conservatives. The hierarchical stereotypes were reliable and constant between groups of Ss differing in political orientation and demographic characteristics. This demonstrated that a stereotype generated from an adjective checklist could be meaningfully represented as a hierarchy of belief responses and that it was not merely an artifact of group measurement. It was also demonstrated that the statement of a stereotype as a hierarchy of belief responses was independent of the valient or countervalient nature of the component beliefs.