An Anatomy of Political Beliefs: A Study of Their Centrality, Confidence, Contents, and Epistemic Authority

Daniel Bar‐Tal*, Alona Raviv, Tali Freund

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

47 Scopus citations

Abstract

The present study is a simultaneous investigation of the contents of political beliefs and their characteristics among Israeli students. In addition, it examines their perceived use of information sources. The results indicate that political beliefs regarding the Israeli‐Arab conflicts are organized systematically around the dove/hawk dimension. Also, a positive relationship was found between centrality of beliefs and confidence in them; between well‐defined political identification and centrality and confidence; and between agreement with the beliefs and confidence. Finally, the results show that the perceived use of information sources is related to political identification. The performed investigation demonstrates the importance of combining the study of the contents of beliefs with that of their characteristics, since the latter have important implications for understanding individuals' cognitive, affective, and behavioral reactions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)849-872
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Applied Social Psychology
Volume24
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - May 1994

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'An Anatomy of Political Beliefs: A Study of Their Centrality, Confidence, Contents, and Epistemic Authority'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this