The Structure, Prevalence, and Nature of Mass Belief Systems

Ideology is a central concept in political psychology. Here, we synthesize the scholarly debate's major themes. We first examine the ways in which ideology has been operationalized and discuss its prevalence (or lack thereof) in the mass public. This is followed by a discussion of the top-down and bottom-up forces that shape citizens' ideology. Top down processes include: political elites and socialization. Bottom-up processes range from political values, basic human values and personality to biology and genetics. Finally, we outline steps that we would welcome in the next generation of research on political ideology. These include fundamental questions about the causal relationship between different bottom-up factors and a call for more attention to measurement of key constructs and of open science practices in the study of political ideology. We hope this chapter inspires others and sets the stage for the next generation of research on political ideology.