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Political dissonance: The effect of political ideology on premarital sex
Destini A. Smith, Lakin N. Douglas, Damien R. Jones, Alison J. Patev, & Kristina B. Hood, Ph.D.
Mississippi State University
Introduction
• Conservatives tend to think of premarital sex
as more morally wrong compared to liberals
(Gallup, 2003).
• Less permissive groups are more susceptible
to outside forces affecting their attitudes
towards premarital sex (Staples, 1978).
• Political ideologies reflect and reinforce
preferences, styles, and activities (Jost,
Federico, & Napier, 2009).
• Participants were 393 undergraduate students at a rural
Southeastern university. The sample consisted of mostly
freshman (44.9%), and was mostly Caucasian (65.1%) and
female (65.4%). The mean age was 20.00 (SD = 2.739).
• In the sample, 43.9% identified their views as Conservative,
34.7% identified their views as moderately conservative and
liberal, and 21.4% identified their views as Liberal.
• Further, 62.8% of the participants reported having had
vaginal intercourse in their lifetime, and of those, 97.6%
reported having a premarital sexual debut.
Hypotheses
• H1: Conservatives will be less permissive of
premarital sex than liberals.
• H2: Conservatives will be less likely to have
premarital sex than liberals
Measures
Discussion
Participants
Results
• The data reveals that though conservatives are
less permissive of premarital sex, they are more
likely to have had premarital sex.
• The results imply that there is dissonance
between attitudes and behavior with regard to
premarital sex.
Limitations
•
One limitation to this research is that data was
collected in a conservative state; thus there
wasn’t much variation in our sample.
•
Further only one question assessed political
outlook, which may not provide a holistic
picture of one’s political views.
•
Also, this study defined premarital sex as being
unmarried at sexual debut. This definition may
not be completely adequate to evaluate
premarital sex.
• A one-way analysis of variance found significant differences
in likelihood, F (6, 238) = 3.06, p = .007, and permissibility,
F (6, 241) = 2.92, p = .009, of premarital sex.
• Post hoc analyses found that conservatives were less likely
to be permissive of premarital sex. However, contrary to
prediction, very conservative individuals were more likely
to have had premarital sex.
• The Liberalism Conservatism Scale, a fivepoint Likert scale, was used to measure
political ideology. The item used was, “How
would you describe your political outlook?”
6
Political ideology and premarital sex
Conclusions
• Results can be implemented in prevention
programs to help attitudes towards premarital sex
more consistent with behaviors.
5
• Future research should examine how sexual
ideology can affect the relationship between
political ideology and premarital sex.
4
Mean
• Experimenter-designed questions assessed
acceptability and incidence of premarital sex.
The items used were, “Rate how morally
acceptable you think the following behaviors/
activities are – Premarital sex,” and, “Were
you married the first time you had vaginal
intercourse?”
Incidence of
Premarital
Sex
3
2
Method
• Undergraduate psychology students (N = 393)
at a rural university in the southeastern United
States participated in the Sexual ideology and
sexual health study online via Qualtrics Online
Survey Software.
• Participants received one hour of course credit
for their participation.
Moral
Appropriaten
ess of
Premarital
Sex
1
0
Very liberal
Liberal
Moderate
Conservative
Political Ideology
Very
conservative
References
• Gallup, G.H. (2003). Current views on premarital, extramarital
sex. Gallup. Retrieved from
http://www.gallup.com/poll/8704/current-views-premaritalextramarital-sex.aspx
• Jost, J.T., Federico, C.M., & Napier, J.L (2009). Political
ideology: Its structure, functions, and elective affinities.
Annual Review of Psychology 60, 307-337.
doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163600
• Staples, R. (1978). Race, liberalism-conservatism and
premarital sexual permissiveness: A bi-racial
comparison. Journal Of Marriage And The Family, 40(4), 733742. doi:10.2307/351194