What Lies Beneath: Dogmatism, Intolerance, and Political Self-Identification

How strongly do the traits of dogmatism and intolerance predict political self-identification? A predominantly Caucasian sample of 137 adults (81 women, 56 men) completed the DOG Scale (Altemeyer, 1996), the Omnibus Civil Liberties Scale (McClosky & Brill, 1983), and measures of political ideology and social desirability. Conservatives were significantly more dogmatic than were liberals and moderates; all three groups differed in tolerance, with liberals being the most tolerant and conservatives the least. Dogmatism and intolerance were significant predictors of political ideological membership, accurately categorizing 82% of liberals and conservatives and explaining between 47.8% and 64.5% of the variance in ideological membership. These data support the view of political ideology as a motivated choice and provide a simplified method for understanding political self-identification.