Moving Beyond a W.E.I.R.D Psychology: A Multicultural Perspective on the Evolution of Ideology

Comments on an article by Roy F. Baumeister and Brad J. Bushman (see record [rid]2023-72386-001[/rid]). The article by Baumeister & Bushman applies an evolutionary perspective to understanding the universal underpinnings of left-right ideology and ultimately how and why those different orientations become polarized in modern society. Specifically, they apply a version of cultural animal theory to argue that evolutionary pressures to expand the 'quantity of life' (i.e., expand the human population) pushed human beings to prioritize strategies for amassing and distributing resources throughout society. They propose that groups originally shared these primary tasks; however, as societies became more complex, a division of labor emerged wherein the resource producers separated from the resource distributors to the point where their motives became seemingly antithetical. Resource producers were motivated to amass and preserve group resources leading to a more reticent, conservative ideology, and the resource distributors were motivated to ensure that the members of the group were cared for and had the resources they needed to thrive, leading to a more liberal, progressive ideology. Drawing on a more accurate and global evolutionary model, authors suggest that to understand left-right orientations we must look beyond resource acquisition and distribution as the central human motive. By examining accurate models of human evolution and including diverse cultural and political patterns from across the globe, we present a broader and more inclusive theory about the evolution of left-right ideology that can better account for data patterns across multiple disciplines and cultures. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)