Dangerous Delusions: Towards a Psychology of Neoliberal Ideological Beliefs in the Ecological, Social, and Political Polycrisis

This presentation reports a first wave of studies from a research program on the psychological significance of neoliberal ideology in the socio-politico-ecological polycrisis. Neoliberalism not only enforces globally dominant political-economic practices of market expansion, entrepreneurial freedom, dismantling the welfare state, and supremacy of capital interests, but also pervades psychological processes, belief systems, and behaviors. After reviewing theoretical and methodological foundations on system-justifying neoliberal ideologies, exemplary empirical results are reported, pertaining to the ecological climate crisis, the social crisis of eroding civil solidarity, and the legitimation crisis of liberal democracies. All are addressed in survey studies using the neoliberal ideological beliefs questionnaire with sub-dimensions of individualism, competition, and instrumentality. The first study examined relationships with system justification, environmental consciousness, climate-protective behavior, and estimated carbon footprint, confirming a detrimental role of neoliberal ideological beliefs. The second study established connections between neoliberal ideological beliefs, moral disengagement, and lacking civic engagement for people seeking refuge. The third study explored correlational patterns of neoliberal beliefs, political attitudes, and party preferences, showing a tendency towards right-wing populism and social dominance orientation. Additionally, qualitative interviews were conducted among socio-economically disadvantaged groups. Contradicting their social interests, participants endorsed neoliberal individualism, competition, and instrumentality, evidenced by meritocratic explanations for poverty and rejection of wealth redistribution. Underlying psychological processes were reduction of cognitive dissonance and appeasement of epistemic and existential motives. Psychodynamics of neoliberal ideologies in the polycrisis are highlighted, including self-reinforcing spirals, corrosion of transformative capacities, and the xenophobic authoritarian turn. Implications for following waves of research are discussed.