Mapping Lay Perceptions of Contemporary Global Culture and Its Ideological and Political Correlates

Despite growing interest, the content and political correlates of contemporary global culture remain to be systematically explicated. Global culture is argued to be an extension of American‐Western culture, and thus, to propagate an economically conservative agenda alongside a liberal‐progressive social agenda. These conflicting emphases require the decomposition of conservatism into its economic and social facets, as suggested by the dual‐process motivational (DPM) model. The current studies tested lay perceptions of this global culture and its political correlates, within a Jewish Israeli context. Studies demonstrated that the global culture cluster together with Western culture (Preliminary Study and Study 1) to form a globalized‐Western culture (GWC). Endorsement of GWC was found to positively associate with economic conservatism and through its mediation with SDO (Studies 1 and 2). Contrarily, social conservatism, best indexed by RWA (Study 1), and negative evaluations of gender unorthodoxy (Study 2), was demonstrated to link with lower endorsement of GWC. The results are discussed in the context of Jewish‐Israeli society, and future directions for a political psychology of globalization are suggested.