Cultural Conservatism
In: Journal of Cognition and CultureCNRS Researcher, Département d’études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University Paris France
Search for other papers by Olivier Morin in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Trying to preserve cultural forms as faithfully as possible is a key motivation for cultural transmission. This paper reviews two possible accounts of it. One, evolutionary conservatism, is premised on the superiority of accumulated cultural knowledge compared to individual judgement – a theme that runs strongly through both the cultural evolution literature and conservative political philosophy. I argue for a clear distinction between evolutionary conservatism, and status quo conservatism as motivated by loss- and risk-aversion. I proceed to tackle some outstanding issues regarding status quo conservatism: its association with attachment to social hierarchies; the kind of cultural practices that tend to elicit it; and the question why an attitude motivated by considerations of costs and benefits might be manifested as a rigid or absolute principle. Seeing some cultural practices as equilibria in a coordination game helps answer these questions.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Acerbi, A., Enquist, M., & Ghirlanda, S. (2009). Cultural evolution and the individual development of openness and conservatism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(45), 18931–18935.
-
Atran, S., & Axelrod, R. (2008). Reframing Sacred Values. Negotiation Journal, 24(3), 221–246. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1571-9979.2008.00182.x.
-
Boehm, C. (1999). Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior. Harvard University Press.
-
Boyd, R., Richerson, P., & Henrich, J. (2013). The cultural evolution of technology – Facts and theories. In Cultural Evolution: Society, Technology, Language and Religion (MIT Press, pp. 119–142). Peter J. Richerson and Morten Christiansen.
-
Brennan, G., & Hamlin, A. (2016). Practical Conservatism. The Monist, 99(4), 336–351.
-
Burke, E. (1790). Reflexions on the revolution in France (F. Turner, Ed.). Yale University Press.
-
Caldwell, C. A., & Millen, A. E. (2010). Conservatism in laboratory microsocieties: Unpredictable payoffs accentuate group-specific traditions. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(2), 123–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.08.002.
-
Campbell, D. T. (1975). On the conflicts between biological and social evolution and between psychology and moral tradition. American Psychologist, 30(12), 1103–1126. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.30.12.1103.
-
Chwe, M. S.-Y. (2003). Rational Ritual: Culture, Coordination, and Common Knowledge (New Ed). Princeton Univ Pr.
-
Clarke, S. (2017). A Prospect Theory Approach to Understanding Conservatism. Philosophia, 45(2), 551–568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11406-017-9845-9.
-
Cohen, G. A. (2011). Rescuing Conservatism: A Defense of Existing Value 1. In Reasons and Recognition. Oxford University Press.
-
Costello, T. H., Bowes, S., Baldwin, M., Lilienfeld, S. O., & Tasimi, A. (2021). Are Conservatives More Rigid Than Liberals? A Meta-Analytic Test of the Rigidity-of-the-Right Hypothesis. PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kq4mn.
-
Dennett, D. C. (1995). Darwin’s dangerous idea: Evolution and the meaning of life. Simon and Schuster.
-
Frank, R. (1991). Passions Within Reason – The Strategic Role of the Emotions (New e. édition). W. W. Norton & Company.
-
Gelfand, M. (2019). Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: Tight and Loose Cultures and the Secret Signals That Direct Our Lives. Simon and Schuster.
-
Greenberg, J., & Jonas, E. (2003). Psychological motives and political orientation – the left, the right, and the rigid: Comment on Jost et al. (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 376–382; discussion 383–393. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.376.
-
Guala, F. (2016). Understanding Institutions: The Science and Philosophy of Living Together (1er édition). Princeton University Press.
-
Hamilton, A. (2015). Conservatism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
-
Henrich, J. (2015). The Secret of Our Success – How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton University Press.
-
Henrich, J., & McElreath, R. (2002). Are Peasants Risk‐Averse Decision Makers? Current Anthropology, 43(1), 172–181. https://doi.org/10.1086/338291.
-
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 339–375.
-
Jost, J. T., Napier, J. L., Thorisdottir, H., Gosling, S. D., Palfai, T. P., & Ostafin, B. (2007). Are Needs to Manage Uncertainty and Threat Associated With Political Conservatism or Ideological Extremity? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(7), 989–1007.
-
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (2012). Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision Under Risk. In Handbook of the Fundamentals of Financial Decision Making: Vol. Volume 4 (pp. 99–127). World Scientific.
-
Lewis, L. (2002). Convention. John Wiley & Sons.
-
Mehta, J., Starmer, C., & Sugden, R. (1994). The Nature of Salience: An Experimental Investigation of Pure Coordination Games. American Economic Review, 84(3), 658–673.
-
Mrkva, K., Johnson, E. J., Gächter, S., & Herrmann, A. (2020). Moderating Loss Aversion: Loss Aversion Has Moderators, But Reports of its Death are Greatly Exaggerated. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 30(3), 407–428.
-
O’Connor, C. (2019). The Origins of Unfairness: Social Categories and Cultural Evolution. OUP Oxford.
-
O’Hara, K. (2016). Conservatism, Epistemology, and Value. The Monist, 99(4), 423–440.
-
Oakeshott, M. (1991). Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays ($ {number}nd édition). Liberty Fund Inc.
-
Palmer, C. T. (2009). Cultural Traditions and the Evolutionary Advantages of Noninnovation. In Innovation in Cultural Systems. The MIT Press.
-
Peterson, B., Smith, J. A., Tannenbaum, D., & Shaw, M. P. (2009). On the “Exporting” of Morality: Its Relation to Political Conservatism and Epistemic Motivation. Social Justice Research, 22(2), 206–230.
-
Proulx, T., & Brandt, M. J. (2017). Beyond threat and uncertainty: The underpinnings of conservatism. Social Cognition, 35(4), 313–323.
-
Quinton, A., & Quinton, C. A. (1978). The Politics of Imperfection: The Religious and Secular Traditions of Conservative Thought in England from Hooker to Oakeshott. Faber & Faber.
-
Richerson, P., & Boyd, R. (2005). Not by genes alone. The University of Chicago Press.
-
Schelling, T. (1990). The Strategy of Conflict (Reprint). Harvard University Press.
-
Scruton, R. (2015). How to Be a Conservative (Reprint édition). Bloomsbury Continuum.
-
Stenner, K. (2009). Three Kinds of ‘Conservatism’. Psychological Inquiry, 20(2/3), 142–159.
-
Weeden, J., & Kurzban, R. (2014). The Hidden Agenda of the Political Mind: How Self-Interest Shapes Our Opinions and Why We Won’t Admit It. Princeton University Press.
-
White, K. R. G., Kinney, D., Danek, R. H., Smith, B., & Harben, C. (2020). The Resistance to Change-Beliefs Scale: Validation of a New Measure of Conservative Ideology. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 46(1), 20–35.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1489 | 615 | 44 |
| Full Text Views | 112 | 38 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 249 | 72 | 1 |
Cultural Conservatism
In: Journal of Cognition and CultureCNRS Researcher, Département d’études cognitives, Institut Jean Nicod, ENS, EHESS, CNRS, PSL University Paris France
Search for other papers by Olivier Morin in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Trying to preserve cultural forms as faithfully as possible is a key motivation for cultural transmission. This paper reviews two possible accounts of it. One, evolutionary conservatism, is premised on the superiority of accumulated cultural knowledge compared to individual judgement – a theme that runs strongly through both the cultural evolution literature and conservative political philosophy. I argue for a clear distinction between evolutionary conservatism, and status quo conservatism as motivated by loss- and risk-aversion. I proceed to tackle some outstanding issues regarding status quo conservatism: its association with attachment to social hierarchies; the kind of cultural practices that tend to elicit it; and the question why an attitude motivated by considerations of costs and benefits might be manifested as a rigid or absolute principle. Seeing some cultural practices as equilibria in a coordination game helps answer these questions.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1489 | 615 | 44 |
| Full Text Views | 112 | 38 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 249 | 72 | 1 |