The Comparison of Political Ideologies in terms of Values and Level of Cognitive Complexity

Differences in the processes of understanding the political events and phenomena are among the topics which the literature on political behaviour interests. There are some variables which guide to individuals in these processes. For example, the values are internal norms which guide individuals in interpretation and explanation of events they encounter. In addition, the role of ideologies is important when it comes to interpreting political events and phenomena. The cognitive complexity level is a concept which expresses the multifaceted reasoning abilities of individuals in these interpretation and explanation processes. In this study, political ideologies were compared in terms of values and level of cognitive complexity. Moreover, it was examined whether the political promises that the individuals prefer in the process of political choice differ in terms of level of cognitive complexity. 302 university students participated in the study. Analysis results indicate significant differences between right, left and moderate individuals in terms of some of the values. The right-wingers attribute more importance to tradition, security and conformity values while left-wingers attribute more importance to universalism and self-direction values. Moreover, right- and left-oriented individuals think significantly more complex than individuals with moderate political views. In terms of level of cognitive complexity, no significant difference was found between the preferred political promise groups. The results were discussed in the light of the findings in the related articles