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There is growing research evidence that political ideology is an important determinant of complying with the rules and recommendations aimed at fighting the coronavirus. This paper analyses the role of the left-right ideology self-positioning in supporting the government measures in fighting the COVID–19 pandemic and practicing the physical distancing guidelines in Serbia. The study was conducted online on a sample of 656 respondents. Two hierarchical multiple regression models with age, the COVID–19 experience, the perception of risk posed by the coronavirus, and political ideology predicting: (1) policy support and (2) physical distancing were tested. The results show that policy support was predicted by increasing risk perception and the right-leaning ideology. Risk perception predicted physical distancing practices, and so did age and the COVID–19 experience. The results also indicate that the relationship between risk perception and both policy support and physical distancing is moderated by political ideology. Perceiving the ongoing pandemic as a greater threat is related to higher policy support and physical distancing among the right-leaning persons only. They seem especially sensitive to the perceived threat.

This paper aims at analysing the relationship between positive and negative party identification and political knowledge, as well as their interplay in regard to electoral turnout. The data from the Serbian 2012 post-election public opinion survey on the nationally representative probability-based sample of voting age citizens were used (N = 1568). The data show that political knowledge is significantly and positively correlated both with positive and negative party identification. Citizens who are more knowledgeable and positively identified are also more likely to vote. However, it is shown that the influence of political knowledge on electoral turnout is moderated only by positive party identification. Political knowledge significantly predicts turnout only in the group of citizens without positive party identification. Being negatively identified with a political party does not modify the relationship between political knowledge and turnout. The results are discussed in terms of the Michigan model of party identification and cognitive mobilisation thesis. The roles of affective and cognitive motivation in electoral participation are additionally stressed and debated. [Project of the Serbian Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development, Grant no. 47010]

Left-right ideology is regarded as an expression of socio-economic divisions. More recently, it has expanded to incorporate orientations such as nationalism or postmaterialism, and relaxed its association with social structure. Furthermore, the meaning of the political left and right varies across political contexts. As a result it is questionable to what extent left-right labels can successfully function as heuristic devices for political orientation. In order to understand the meaning of the left-right ideological dimension in a specific context it is necessary to examine the ways public responds to these labels, its socio-economic correlates, and its associations with party preferences. These tasks are undertaken in this paper, focusing on Serbia. The paper examines the readiness of Serbian respondents to identify with the leftright ideological labels, and develops a multivariate model of party preferences using socioeconomic variables and left-right scale and predictors. The study is based on data from the 2012 Serbian election study, a public opinion survey of 1568 voting age citizens of Serbia. Results indicate that about two thirds of respondents are willing to express their left-right ideological positions. This ideological dimension, however, has weak socio-economic roots, and is weakly, though significantly, associated with party preferences.

The paper presents a socio-psychological causal model of political intolerance in Hungary, on the basis of a national random sample survey data (N=1002). The research improves on the existing models in two directions: by constructing a more complete model through inclusion of a wider set of potentially relevant variables, and by using more reliable operationalisation of the examined concepts. The results indicate that political tolerance in Hungary, as defined by the 'content free' method, can only weakly be explained by an extensive set of socio-demographic, psychological and political variables. Contrary to the commonly reported results, socio-economic status variables displayed a rather complex and often direct pattern of influence on political tolerance, while psychological variables proved to be relatively weak predictors. In Hungary, psychological factors have a relatively strong role in determining the choice of target groups and socio-demographic variables have a stronger role in determining the degree of intolerance. In general, the findings suggest that intolerance of different groups is not uniformly related to social and psychological explanatory variables.

Relationships between value orientations and political attitudes are usually analyzed as linear and additive associations. Since values are commonly conceived as lacking independence of each other, particularly in politics where they usually appear in the shape of ‘ideological packages’, the paper examines how values interact when generating their political effects. We investigate the interactive effects between postmaterialism, religiosity and ethnocentrism when they are required to explain ideological and party preferences. The outlined problems are examined using the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES) data. Results show that political expression of some values (e.g., ethnocentrism) is dependent on the level of the other values (e.g., postmaterialism). [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. III 47010]

The paper analyzes the political consequences of religiosity, post-materialism and nationalist attitudes. According to modernization and secularization theses, ideological orientations such as religiosity and (ethno)nationalism are supposed to decline in political relevance as modernizations progresses. On the other side, in the era of political de-alignment and re-alignment, political space is supposed to be determined by the 'new politics' ideological dimensions, of which post-materialist orientation is the most familiar. In order to examine the implications of these theoretical perspectives, this paper analyzes the ability of the aforementioned orientations to explain various aspects of political attitudes and behavior, such as the support for democracy, party preference, or ideological identification. The outlined problems are examined using data the Dutch Parliamentary Election Studies (DPES). Several features make the Netherlands an appropriate case to address these problems. These include the sharp trend of secularization, but accompanied by the persisting religious political cleavage. More recent trends of post-materialist and anti-immigrant politics have also been early and vividly expressed in the Netherlands. The main findings show that ideological orientations such as post-materialism, religiosity, and ethnocentrism, continue to be important for explaining various aspects of political attitudes and behavior in the Netherlands. The results also indicate that modernization and 'post-modernization' theories are imperfect explanations for the observed trends.

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The Authoritarian Personality is one of the most influential studies in social psychology, yet it has been subjected to different, often contradictory interpretations. This paper argues that the most important element of the authoritarian personality theory is the analysis of the psychological functionality of prejudice. Using psychoanalytic conceptual tools, the authors described the psychological logic behind apparently contradictory prejudices, and the function of prejudice in personal psychological 'economy'. In this way, Adorno et al. 'psychoanalyzed' both prejudice and the prejudiced. The first part of the paper presents the original research, with the particular focus on the less familiar aspects. The second part reviews the reactions to the Authoritarian Personality, and analyzes some of the better known criticisms and objections. The paper ends with the review of recent research trends inspired by Adorno et al.’s theory.

Political tolerance is one of the basic values of a democratic society. At the same time, it is also a controversial value - political freedoms are often used to undermine democratic order. In light of the early findings of low level of political tolerance in Eastern Europe (e.g., Bahry, Boaz & Gordon, 1997; Gibson & Duch, 1993), it is important to investigate both its general level and the association with the support for general democratic norms. This paper presents results of a comparative research of political tolerance in Europe, with special focus on the situation in Serbia. The first part of the paper presents descriptive findings abut the support for general democratic norms and the degree of tolerance in approximately 30 European countries. The second part analyzes the relationships between the general acceptance of democratic norms and political tolerance, i.e., the application of the abstract norms to specific groups. The research is based on the World Values Survey data (WVS; http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org). WVS data include the so called 'the least liked group' measure of political tolerance, developed by Sullivan et al. (1979, 1982). The results, once again, indicted the gap between widespread endorsement of abstract democratic norms and readiness to grant the basic political liberties to various specific political groups. Although the level of political tolerance is low across Europe, intolerance is still more widespread in East European countries. Serbian respondents appear similar to those from neighboring countries.

Tolerance of political opponents is one of the basic preconditions of a democratic society. Empirical research, however, typically reveals low levels of tolerance even in societies with long democratic tradition. This paper presents a comparative study of the sources of individual differences in the degree of political tolerance in Europe, with special reference to Serbia. According to Sullivan et al.'s theory (Sullivan et al. 1979, 53-55), socio-demographic factors are decisive for the choice of a group towards which the intolerance will be directed, while psychological factors are more important for the level of intolerance. Implications of this theory are examined using data collected in about 30 European countries. The research is based on World Values Survey data (WVS). The WVS data include the so-called 'least- liked' operationalization of political intolerance. The findings reveal significant impact of psychological factors on the target group selection, and not only on the degree of intolerance, contrary to Sullivan et al.'s theory.

The paper analyzes socio-psychological sources of political divisions in post-communist Serbia. Following the argument that authoritarianism is intrinsically associated with the opposition to pro-democratic political change, it is hypothesized that authoritarianism is associated with the support for the former communists, and increasingly over time for radical nationalists. The data analysis utilizes three data sets, from 1990, 1996 and 2002, that is from periods that represent three crucial stages in the development of the Serbian post-communist politics. Discriminant analysis of party preferences showed that preferences for authoritarian political options and ideological orientations were tied to authoritarianism as an individual difference variable and specific socio-structural characteristics. The paper offers an interpretation of the Serbian politics throughout 1990s in terms of a cleavage of world views.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all domains of human life, including the economic and social fabric of societies. One of the central strategies for managing public health throughout the pandemic has been through persuasive messaging and collective behaviour change. To help scholars better understand the social and moral psychology behind public health behaviour, we present a dataset comprising of 51,404 individuals from 69 countries. This dataset was collected for the International Collaboration on Social & Moral Psychology of COVID-19 project (ICSMP COVID-19). This social science survey invited participants around the world to complete a series of moral and psychological measures and public health attitudes about COVID-19 during an early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic (between April and June 2020). The survey included seven broad categories of questions: COVID-19 beliefs and compliance behaviours; identity and social attitudes; ideology; health and well-being; moral beliefs and motivation; personality traits; and demographic variables. We report both raw and cleaned data, along with all survey materials, data visualisations, and psychometric evaluations of key variables., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 ( N  = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution-individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences.)

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics., (© 2022. The Author(s).)