Are Conservatives Always Conservative? Political Ideology and Consumer Decision-Making

Abstract

Political conservatism, predicted by dispositional traits including risk aversion and intolerance of uncertainty (Jost et al. 2003), is known to affect arguably low-level decisions, such as the choice between a name brand and generic product (Khan et al. 2013). We directly and conceptually replicate the effect of political conservatism on consumption decisions with inherent risk, finding that conservatives play it safe when choices carry functional risk. However, conservatives are more risk-seeking in financial decision-making, consistent with wealth's ability to buffer against mortality salience, another trait that predicts conservative ideology.