Human nature and globalization’s discontents: What the antecedents of ideology tells us about the obstacles to greater global interconnectedness

• Published in: Research in Globalization Vol. 3; p. 100038
• Main Author: White, Christopher Michael
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.12.2021; Elsevier
• Subjects: Globalization; Human nature; Ideology; Political psychology; Human nature; Political psychology; Globalization; Ideology
• ISSN: 2590-051X; 2590-051X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.resglo.2021.100038

In this paper, I show how a particular understanding of agency, focussed on psychological and physiological mechanisms, has the potential to provide an alternative appreciation of globalization, particularly the sources of its discontent. The argument draws on recent findings in political psychology, specifically research that explores the antecedents of ideology and the attitudinal pathways that form left and right sympathies. I show how the particular traits and mechanisms that correlate with ideological outcomes, for example negativity biases, also shed light on the globalization process, allowing for an improved appreciation of the variety of ways subjects experience accelerated levels of interconnectedness. The assumption that discontent is necessarily a by-product of the social inequities associated with the process is challenged, and the existence of a sceptical disposition, at least amongst some, posited. Given the basis of this scepticism, I point out that the validity of judging globalization is as a result, also rendered more complex; precisely because the ‘legitimacy’ of one’s stance becomes, according to this conceptualisation, a dependent variable, determined –in part- by immutable characteristics. Almost inadvertently, I suggest, the antecedent literature identifies a major barrier to greater global interconnectedness. This draws attention to a final substantive insight derived from the antecedent literature, that in light of the new political geography, ‘ineffectiveness’ is the norm: meaning the ‘the ensemble of needs, traits, and motives’ that underlie political stances, no longer ‘fit’ with the existing discursive (ideological) structures. This I suggest, represents a fundamental source of discontent, because the existing ideologies of left and right, in ignoring the importance of human nature, neglect the significance of ‘fit’ as they try to make sense of globalization.