Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-x5gtn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-01T12:30:46.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Incomplete grounding: the theory of symbolic separation is contradicted by pervasive stability in attitudes and behavior

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Oleg Urminsky Open the ORCID record for Oleg Urminsky [Opens in a new window]
Oleg Urminsky*
Affiliation:
University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Chicago, IL60637. oleg.urminsky@chicagobooth.eduhttps://home.uchicago.edu/~ourminsky/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The proposed theory is broad enough to accommodate the reduction or elimination of prior influences by a variety of acts symbolizing separation (including cleansing). However, it does not account for stability in psychological variables, and is contradicted by widely documented stability in people's actual attitudes and behavior over time, in multiple domains, despite people's pervasive everyday acts of symbolic separation.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 44 , 2021 , e26
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Billingsley, K. D., Waehler, C. A., & Hardin, S. I. (1993). Stability of optimism and choice of coping strategy. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 76(1), 91–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blokland, A. A., & Nieuwbeerta, P. (2010). Considering criminal continuity: Testing for heterogeneity and state dependence in the association of past to future offending. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology, 43(3), 526–556.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Choi, N. G., & Chou, R. J. (2010). Time and money volunteering among older adults: The relationship between past and current volunteering and correlates of change and stability. Ageing and Society, 30(4), 559–581.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Denny, K., & Doyle, O. (2009). Does voting history matter? Analysing persistence in turnout. American Journal of Political Science, 53(1), 17–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dubé, J. P., Hitsch, G. J., & Rossi, P. E. (2010). State dependence and alternative explanations for consumer inertia. The RAND Journal of Economics, 41(3), 417–445.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Freeze, M., & Montgomery, J. M. (2016). Static stability and evolving constraint: Preference stability and ideological structure in the mass public. American Politics Research, 44(3), 415–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Green, D. P., & Palmquist, B. (1994). How stable is party identification?. Political Behavior, 16(4), 437–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hamberg, E. M. (1991). Stability and change in religious beliefs, practice, and attitudes: A Swedish panel study. Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 30(1), 63–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Körner, A., & Strack, F. (2019). Conditions for the clean slate effect after success or failure. The Journal of Social Psychology, 159(1), 92–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224545.2018.1454881.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Krosnick, J. A. (1991). The stability of political preferences: Comparisons of symbolic and nonsymbolic attitudes. American Journal of Political Science, 35(3), 547–576.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meer, J. (2013). The habit of giving. Economic Inquiry, 51(4), 2002–2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nagin, D., & Paternoster, R. (2000). Population heterogeneity and state dependence: State of the evidence and directions for future research. Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 16(2), 117–144.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roberts, B. W., & DelVecchio, W. F. (2000). The rank-order consistency of personality traits from childhood to old age: A quantitative review of longitudinal studies. Psychological Bulletin, 126(1), 3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Roberts, S., & Pashler, H. (2000). How persuasive is a good fit? A comment on theory testing. Psychological Review, 107(2), 358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schou, I., Ekeberg, O., Sandvik, L., & Ruland, C. M. (2005). Stability in optimism-pessimism in relation to bad news: A study of women with breast cancer. Journal of Personality Assessment, 84(2), 148–154.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed