| Understanding how people come to justify or challenge existing social systems is critical for many social and political outcomes, such as voting, collective action, and intergroup dynamics, especially when the status quo is marked by injustice or inequality. Across four studies integrating theory and methods from social psychology, political science, and cognitive neuroscience, my dissertation explores the psychological and neuroanatomical factors underlying ideological beliefs and behaviors. It also begins to address the "chicken-and-egg" problem in political neuroscience of whether a potential causal relationship between biology and political beliefs can be understood as dynamic and bidirectional. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 examine the relationship between amygdala structure and system justification, showing that larger grey matter volume in the bilateral amygdalae is associated with greater system justification tendencies. Study 3 uses a "natural experiment" approach to test a causal link between biology and ideology by examining a lesion patient sample. I find that damage to the amygdala is related to the expression of more liberal political beliefs. Finally, Study 4 is a prospective, longitudinal investigation of structural changes to the brain to understand the relationship between the development of brain structure, system justification, and ideological preferences (including participation in collective action) in a college sample. Using new, more precise techniques for longitudinal brain structure analysis, I find that regional changes to grey matter volume are related not only to changes in ideology but are also a function of the ideological contributions of a college education. Taken together, this research sheds light on the psychological processes that contribute to ideologically motivated protection of the status quo through the use of novel techniques in the study of system justification and political processes. |
