Conservatives have a thing for addiction: study

Studies suggest there could be a reason your conservative friend has a bad habit.

“New research published in the Journal of Marketing provides evidence that a person’s political ideology shapes their responses to addictive products,” reports PsyPost. “The findings suggest that political conservatism is associated with more favorable attitudes and behaviors toward items like alcohol, tobacco, and gambling, due to a heightened perception of personal control.

Past studies have confirmed that political ideology affects consumer actions, like charitable giving and recycling. But researchers knew much less about how these same political beliefs affect choices that “carry significant health and financial risks,” like addictive products, which are manufactured specifically to “create physiological and psychological dependencies.”

The difference appears to come down to an individual’s perception of their own self-control — regardless of whether or not they really have any.

“Addictive products, such as gambling, alcohol, tobacco, gaming, fast food, and illicit drugs, create serious public health and social harms,” the authors report. “Yet people differ in how dangerous they think these products are and how favorably they respond to them. We wanted to understand whether political ideology helps explain these differences, as most prior research has focused on how ideology shapes positive consumer behaviors, rather than potentially harmful ones.”

Apparently, an overblown sense of self confidence can lead you into addictions that you’ve convinced yourself you have a handle on.

“The researchers proposed that this heightened feeling of control might lead conservatives to underestimate the inherent dangers of addictive products. If individuals believe they are always in charge of their actions, they might perceive addictive substances as less threatening. This reduced perception of danger could then result in more favorable attitudes and increased consumption,” reports PsyPost.

“Our main finding is that political ideology can shape how people respond to addictive products,” the authors said. “Across ten studies, we found that conservatives, compared with liberals, tended to have more favorable attitudes, intentions, and behaviors toward addictive products. This happened because conservatives reported a stronger sense of personal control over their actions, which made these products seem less dangerous.”

The results came as a bit of a surprise because it ran counter to expectations based on previous psychological profiling.

“Prior research often suggests that conservatives are more sensitive to risk and threat, so one might expect them to view addictive products more negatively,” the authors explained. “Instead, we found the opposite. In this context, conservatives’ stronger sense of agency seemed to reduce their perception of addictive product danger.”

But it wasn’t a fluke, they said.

“We also tested the effect across different countries, including the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand,” they said. “The fact that we observed similar results across these settings suggests that the relationship is not unique to a single country or political system. We also found the pattern across several addictive products, including alcohol, tobacco, gambling, fast food, gaming, and drugs.”

Jasmina Ilicic and Stacey Brennan authored the study, “Political Ideology Shapes Consumer Responses to Addictive Products.