Exploring motivated reasoning in polarization over the unfolding 2023 judicial reform in Israel.


Journal

Communications psychology
ISSN: 2731-9121
Titre abrégé: Commun Psychol
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9918716686206676

Informations de publication

Date de publication:
18 Jun 2024
Historique:
received: 13 09 2023
accepted: 19 03 2024
medline: 7 9 2024
pubmed: 7 9 2024
entrez: 6 9 2024
Statut: epublish

Résumé

This work explored polarization over Israel's Judicial Reform, introduced in January 2023. We find that the reform divided people into pro- and anti-reform camps, which differed in characteristics such as institutional trust, patriotism, and national identity. For example, the camps disagreed about trust in the government versus the judiciary. In line with motivated reasoning-biased reasoning processes used to reach desired conclusions-people's pre-existing characteristics motivated polarized views of the reform as a threat to democracy (issue-based polarization) and negative emotions towards opponents (affective polarization). Further demonstrating a motivated process, pro-reform participants (the electorate majority), prioritized majority rule over other democratic features (e.g., minority rights) compared to anti-reform participants. Polarization differentially predicted downstream consequences (e.g., protest methods), indicating that the camps' reactions were motivated by the extremity of their views and negative emotions. This work extends the understanding of potentially motivated polarization processes and their immediate downstream consequences.

Identifiants

pubmed: 39242945
doi: 10.1038/s44271-024-00080-x
pii: 10.1038/s44271-024-00080-x
doi:

Types de publication

Journal Article

Langues

eng

Pagination

59

Informations de copyright

© 2024. The Author(s).

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Auteurs

Dora Simunovic (D)

Bremen International Graduate School of Social Sciences, Constructor University, Campus Ring 1, Bremen, Germany. doras@bigsss-bremen.de.
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. doras@bigsss-bremen.de.
Conflict Management, Resolution & Negotiation Program, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. doras@bigsss-bremen.de.

Anna Dorfman (A)

Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

Maayan Katzir (M)

Conflict Management, Resolution & Negotiation Program, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel.

Classifications MeSH