IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/soinre/v180y2025i3d10.1007_s11205-025-03716-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Ideologists, Non-Ideologists and the Construct Validity of One-Dimensional Measures of Political Ideology

Author

Listed:
  • Yoav Ganzach

    (Tel Aviv University, Faculty of Management)

  • Yaacov Schul

    (The Hebrew University, Department of Psychology)

Abstract

Previous research has shown that a large part of the population lacks a coherent system of political beliefs (Converse, 1964). Yet, studies in social and political psychology often examine the relationship between ideology and political attitudes/behavior on the basis of a one-dimensional self-placement liberal-conservative or left-right ideology scale that assumes that all of the participants have a coherent ideology. In the current paper we suggest a simple method by which ‘non-ideologists’ could be identified in studies that are based on a one-dimensional ideology scales, and demonstrate that excluding them from the analysis. improves the validity of our conclusions regarding the role of ideology in political psychology. We conclude with a discussion of the pros and the cons of such exclusion.

Suggested Citation

  • Yoav Ganzach & Yaacov Schul, 2025. "Ideologists, Non-Ideologists and the Construct Validity of One-Dimensional Measures of Political Ideology," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 180(3), pages 1545-1566, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:180:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-025-03716-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s11205-025-03716-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11205-025-03716-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11205-025-03716-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:soinre:v:180:y:2025:i:3:d:10.1007_s11205-025-03716-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.