TY - JOUR
T1 - Rationalizing Conflict
T2 - The Polarizing Role of Accountability in Ideological Decision Making
AU - Wayne, Carly
AU - Porat, Roni
AU - Tamir, Maya
AU - Halperin, Eran
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015, © The Author(s) 2015.
PY - 2016/12/1
Y1 - 2016/12/1
N2 - How does accountability impact political decisions? Though previous research on accountability has demonstrated its potential effects in the realms of business, elections, and more, very little research has explored the effect of citizen accountability in highly ideological, intractable, and political conflicts. This article addresses this issue, looking at the unique interaction between accountability and ideology on Israeli citizens’ political attitudes regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The results of two experimental studies in Israel reveal that accountable individuals behave in significantly more ideologically partisan ways than their nonaccountable counterparts. Moreover, this polarization is dependent on the specific conflict context, with leftists more affected by the issue of negotiations and rightists by security concerns. This signals that ideological polarization under accountability may depend on the “issue ownership” each ideological group feels toward the specific conflict context and its corresponding social goal of projecting ideological consistency on these issues.
AB - How does accountability impact political decisions? Though previous research on accountability has demonstrated its potential effects in the realms of business, elections, and more, very little research has explored the effect of citizen accountability in highly ideological, intractable, and political conflicts. This article addresses this issue, looking at the unique interaction between accountability and ideology on Israeli citizens’ political attitudes regarding the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The results of two experimental studies in Israel reveal that accountable individuals behave in significantly more ideologically partisan ways than their nonaccountable counterparts. Moreover, this polarization is dependent on the specific conflict context, with leftists more affected by the issue of negotiations and rightists by security concerns. This signals that ideological polarization under accountability may depend on the “issue ownership” each ideological group feels toward the specific conflict context and its corresponding social goal of projecting ideological consistency on these issues.
KW - accountability
KW - conflict
KW - ideology
KW - motivated reasoning
KW - political attitudes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84994103535&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0022002714564431
DO - 10.1177/0022002714564431
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:84994103535
SN - 0022-0027
VL - 60
SP - 1473
EP - 1502
JO - Journal of Conflict Resolution
JF - Journal of Conflict Resolution
IS - 8
ER -