Date: December 20, 2010
Venue: Inamori Foundation Memorial Hall, Kyoto University
Organizers: Uchida Yukiko (Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University) and Kusumi Takashi (Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University)

Speaker: Dr. John Jost, Professor of Psychology (New York University)
http://www.psych.nyu.edu/jost/

Title of the lecture：Left & Right: The Psychological Basis of a Political Distinction

Abstract of the lecture：
Professor Jost will summarize recent theoretical and empirical advances concerning the scientific understanding of the relationship between certain psychological variables and left-right political orientation. More specifically, he will summarize converging lines of research that link basic social, personality, cognitive, motivational, and even neurophysiological processes to ideological differences between the left and the right. He will also discuss situational factors that are capable of inducing “liberal” and “conservative” shifts in political attitudes. These findings and many others suggest that, contrary to received wisdom in the social and behavioral sciences over the past several decades, political ideology is indeed a meaningful force in people’s lives and that it may be rooted in fundamental psychological antinomies, including general preferences for stability vs. change, order vs. complexity, certainty vs. ambiguity, familiarity vs. novelty, conformity vs. creativity, and loyalty vs. rebellion. Implications for psychology and society will be discussed.

Co-Sponsors:
– Global COE program at the Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequalities, Tohoku University,
– JSPS Grant-in Aid, Nagoya University.
– Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University