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78-485: A culture war is a form of cultural conflict (metaphorical " war ") between different social groups who struggle to politically impose their own ideology (moral beliefs, humane virtues , religious practices) upon mainstream society , or upon the other. In political usage, the term culture war is a metaphor for "hot-button" politics about values and ideologies , realized with intentionally adversarial social narratives meant to provoke political polarization among

156-465: A defining issue : The agenda [Bill] Clinton and [Hillary] Clinton would impose on America—abortion on demand, a litmus test for the Supreme Court, homosexual rights, discrimination against religious schools, women in combat units—that's change, all right. But it is not the kind of change America wants. It is not the kind of change America needs. And it is not the kind of change we can abide in

234-455: A prime - time slot at the 1992 Republican National Convention , Buchanan gave his speech on the culture war. He argued: "There is a religious war going on in our country for the soul of America. It is a cultural war, as critical to the kind of nation we will one day be as was the Cold War itself." In addition to criticizing environmentalists and feminism , he portrayed public morality as

312-485: A "sense of victimization at the hands of a liberal culture run amok. In their eyes, immigrants, gays, women, the poor, and other groups are (undeservedly) granted special rights and privileges." Melzer writes about the example of the National Rifle Association of America , which he says intentionally created a culture war in order to unite conservative groups, particularly groups of white men, against

390-460: A British 1970 sitcom, Fawlty Towers . He defines this conflict as one that occurs when people's expectations of a certain behavior coming from their cultural backgrounds are not met, as others have different cultural backgrounds and different expectations. Cultural conflicts are difficult to resolve as parties to the conflict have different beliefs. Cultural conflicts intensify when those differences become reflected in politics , particularly on

468-462: A clash in cultural values. William Kornblum defines it as a conflict that occurs when conflicting norms create "opportunities for deviance and criminal gain in deviant subcultures ." Kornblum notes that, whenever laws impose cultural values on a group that does not share those views (often, this is the case of the majority imposing their laws on a minority), illegal markets supplied by criminals are created to circumvent those laws. He discusses

546-485: A common perceived threat. Similarly, religion scholar Susan B. Ridgely has written that culture wars were made possible by Focus on the Family . This organization produced conservative Christian " alternative news " that began to bifurcate American media consumption, promoting a particular "traditional family" archetype to one part of the population, particularly conservative religious women. Ridgely says that this tradition

624-627: A conservative political commentator and former host of the Fox News Channel talk show The O'Reilly Factor , emphasizes differences between "Secular-Progressives" and "Traditionalists" in his 2006 book Culture Warrior . Historian Kristin Kobes Du Mez attributes the 1990s emergence of culture wars to the end of the Cold War in 1991. She writes that Evangelical Christians viewed a particular Christian masculine gender role as

702-493: A decades-long culture war pitting the eastern, predominately Russian-speaking, regions against the western Ukrainian-speaking areas of the country. LGBT rights are controversial in Poland, as exemplified by President Andrzej Duda 's vow in 2020 to oppose both same-sex marriage and LGBT adoption . Different interpretations of bitter events during World War II have become especially contentious in Poland since 2015, shortly after

780-442: A dramatic realignment and polarization that had transformed American politics and culture . He argued that on an increasing number of " hot-button " defining issues— abortion , gun politics , separation of church and state , privacy , recreational drug use , homosexuality , censorship —there existed two definable polarities. Furthermore, not only were there a number of divisive issues, but society had divided along essentially

858-585: A focal point, the issues identified with the culture war broadened and intensified in the mid-late 2010s. Jonathan Haidt , author of The Coddling of the American Mind , identified a rise in cancel culture via social media among young progressives since 2012, which he believes had "transformative effects on university life and later on politics and culture throughout the English-speaking world," in what Haidt and other commentators have called

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936-868: A form of neocolonialism . In his view, this began during the AIDS epidemic in Africa , with the United States government first tying HIV/AIDS assistance money to evangelical leadership and the Christian right during the Bush administration , then to LGBTQ tolerance during the administration of Barack Obama . This stoked a culture war that resulted in (among others) the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. Zambian scholar Kapya Kaoma notes that because "the demographic center of Christianity

1014-542: A macro level. An example of cultural conflict is the debate over abortion . Ethnic cleansing is another extreme example of cultural conflict. Wars can also be a result of a cultural conflict; for example the differing views on slavery were one of the reasons for the American Civil War . A more narrow definition of a cultural conflict dates to Daniel Bell 's 1962 essay, "Crime as an American Way of Life", and focuses on criminal -enabling consequences of

1092-445: A matter of minutes and that such groups can form even on the basis of completely arbitrary and invented discriminatory characteristics, such as preferences for certain paintings. In neurology , there is an established literature about the innate propensity of the human brain to divide the world into us and them valence categories, where the exact membership of the in-group and out-group are socially contingent (hence vulnerable to

1170-482: A nation that we still call God's country. A month later, Buchanan characterized the conflict as about power over society's definition of right and wrong. He named abortion, sexual orientation and popular culture as major fronts—and mentioned other controversies, including clashes over the Confederate flag , Christmas, and taxpayer-funded art. He also said that the negative attention his "culture war" speech received

1248-455: A now partly repealed law A second issue, also addressed by the partly repealed law, revolves around Poland–Ukraine relations Cultural conflict Jonathan H. Turner defines cultural conflict as a conflict caused by "differences in cultural values and beliefs that place people at odds with one another." On a micro level, Alexander Grewe discusses a cultural conflict between guests of different culture and nationality as seen in

1326-422: A result of both a media-induced public perception and a deliberate strategy of Labour of pursuing messages and policy ideas based on cultural issues that resonated with more university educated grassroots activists on the left of the party but alienated Labour's traditional working class voters. An April 2022 survey found evidence that Britons are less divided on "culture war" issues than has often been portrayed in

1404-573: A speech to mark the 50th anniversary of Quadrant that "Political Correctness" was dead in Australia but: "we should not underestimate the degree to which the soft-left still holds sway, even dominance, especially in Australia's universities". Also in 2006, Sydney Morning Herald political editor Peter Hartcher reported that Opposition foreign-affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd was entering the philosophical debate by arguing in response that "John Howard,

1482-586: A whole. These authors view culture war not as an unavoidable result of widespread cultural differences, but as a technique used to create in-groups and out-groups for a political purpose. Political commentator E. J. Dionne has written that culture war is an electoral technique to exploit differences and grievances, remarking that the real cultural division is "between those who want to have a culture war and those who don't." Sociologist Scott Melzer says that culture wars are created by conservative, reactive organizations and movements. Members of these movements possess

1560-418: Is a social group to which a person psychologically identifies as being a member. By contrast, an out-group is a social group with which an individual does not identify. People may for example identify with their peer group , family , community , sports team, political party, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or nation. It has been found that the psychological membership of social groups and categories

1638-404: Is associated with a wide variety of phenomena. The terminology was made popular by Henri Tajfel and colleagues beginning in the 1970s during his work in formulating social identity theory . The significance of in-group and out-group categorization was identified using a method called the minimal group paradigm . Tajfel and colleagues found that people can form self-preferencing in-groups within

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1716-511: Is called in-group homogeneity. Discrimination between in-groups and out-groups is a matter of favoritism towards an in-group and the absence of equivalent favoritism towards an out-group. Out-group derogation is the phenomenon in which an out-group is perceived as being threatening to the members of an in-group. This phenomenon often accompanies in-group favoritism, as it requires one to have an affinity towards their in-group. Some research suggests that out-group derogation occurs when an out-group

1794-875: Is guilty of perpetrating 'a fraud' in his so-called culture wars ... designed not to make real change but to mask the damage inflicted by the Government's economic policies". The defeat of the Howard government in the Australian Federal election of 2007 and its replacement by the Rudd Labor government altered the dynamic of the debate. Rudd made an official apology to the Aboriginal Stolen Generation with bi-partisan support. Like Keating, Rudd supported an Australian republic, but in contrast to Keating, Rudd declared support for

1872-426: Is perceived as blocking or hindering the goals of an in-group. It has also been argued that out-group derogation is a natural consequence of the categorization process. People have been shown to be differentially influenced by in-group members. That is, under conditions where group categorization is psychologically salient, people will shift their beliefs in line with in-group social norms . This generally refers to

1950-1243: Is shifting from the global North to the global South " Africa's influence on Christianity worldwide is increasing. American conservatives export their culture wars to Africa, Kaoma says, particularly when they realize they may be losing the battle back home. US Christians have framed their anti-LGBT initiatives in Africa as standing in opposition to a "Western gay agenda ", a framing which Kaoma finds ironic. North American and European conspiracy theories have become widespread in West Africa via social media, according to 2021 survey by First Draft News . COVID-19 misinformation , New World Order conspiracy thinking, QAnon and other conspiracy theories associated with culture war topics are spread by American, Pro-Russian, French-language, and local disinformation websites and social media accounts, including prominent politicians in Nigeria . This has contributed to vaccine hesitancy in West Africa, with 60 percent of survey respondents saying they were unlikely to try to get vaccinated, and an erosion of trust in institutions in

2028-708: The American Political Science Review concluded that, in contrast to a common belief that political party and religious membership shape opinion on culture war topics, instead opinions on culture war topics lead people to revise their political party and religious orientations. The researchers view culture war attitudes as "foundational elements in the political and religious belief systems of ordinary citizens." Some writers and scholars have said that culture wars are created or perpetuated by political special interest groups, by reactionary social movements, by party dynamics, or by electoral politics as

2106-542: The Australian flag and supported the commemoration of ANZAC Day; he also expressed admiration for Liberal Party founder Robert Menzies . Subsequent to the 2007 change of government, and prior to the passage, with support from all parties, of the Parliamentary apology to indigenous Australians, Professor of Australian Studies Richard Nile argued: "the culture and history wars are over and with them should also go

2184-701: The Catholic Church in Germany , led by Pope Pius IX ; and the Kingdom of Prussia , led by chancellor Otto von Bismarck . The Prussian church-and-state political conflict was about the Church's direct control over both education and ecclesiastical appointments in the Prussian kingdom as a Roman Catholic nation and country. Moreover, when compared to other church-and-state conflicts about political culture ,

2262-460: The Center for American Progress to predict "the coming end of the culture wars," which they attributed to demographic change, particularly high rates of acceptance of same-sex marriage among millennials . In the early 2010s, tensions between supporters and opponents of issues such as LGBT rights , modern feminism , Black Lives Matter , and other progressive movements intensified, foreshadowing

2340-545: The Harper government 's attitude towards the arts community . Andrew Coyne termed this negative policy towards the arts community as " class warfare ." During the tenure of the Liberal–National Coalition government of 1996 to 2007, interpretations of Aboriginal history became a part of a wider political debate regarding Australian national pride and symbolism occasionally called the " culture wars ", more often

2418-470: The Second World War . Keating staunchly supported a symbolic apology to Australian Aboriginals for their mistreatment at the hands of previous administrations, and outlined his view of the origins and potential solutions to contemporary Aboriginal disadvantage in his Redfern Park Speech of 10 December 1992 (drafted with the assistance of historian Don Watson ). In 1999, following the release of

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2496-532: The fusiform face area (FFA), an area of the fusiform gyrus located in the inferior temporal cortex of the brain linked to object and face recognition, when viewing same race faces compared to other race faces. Lower activity in the FFA reflects a failure to encode outgroup members at the individual level rather than the categorical level, which comes at the expense of encoding individuating information. This suggests out-group or unfamiliar faces may not be "faces" with

2574-620: The neurological level, where in-group favoritism and out-group bias occurs very early in perception. This process can begin by simply viewing a person's face. Research indicates that individuals are faster and more accurate at recognizing faces of ingroup vs. outgroup members. For example, researchers in a cross-race recognition study recorded blood oxygenation level-dependent signal (BOLD) activity from black and white participants while they viewed and attempted to remember pictures of unfamiliar black faces, white faces and objects. They found that participants in this study exhibited greater activity in

2652-476: The scientific validity of the notion of culture war. Some claim it does not describe real behavior, or that it describes only the behavior of a small political elite. Others claim culture war is real and widespread, and even that it is fundamental to explaining Americans' political behavior and beliefs. A 2023 study on the circulation of conspiracy theories on social media noted that disinformation actors insert polarizing claims in culture wars by taking one side or

2730-451: The " Great Awokening ". Journalist Michael Grunwald says that "President Donald Trump has pioneered a new politics of perpetual culture war" and lists Black Lives Matter , U.S. national anthem protests , climate change , education policy, healthcare policy including Obamacare , and infrastructure policy as culture war issues in 2018. The rights of transgender people and the role of religion in lawmaking were identified as "new fronts in

2808-682: The "history wars". This debate extended into a controversy over the presentation of history in the National Museum of Australia and in high-school history curricula. It also migrated into the general Australian media, with major broadsheets such as The Australian , The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age regularly publishing opinion pieces on the topic. Marcia Langton has referred to much of this wider debate as "war porn" and as an "intellectual dead end". Two Australian Prime Ministers, Paul Keating (in office 1991–1996) and John Howard (in office 1996–2007), became major participants in

2886-442: The "last front in the culture war" in 2015. These conflicts about representation in popular culture re-emerged into electoral politics via the alt-right and alt-lite movements. According to media scholar Whitney Phillips, Gamergate "prototyped" strategies of harassment and controversy-stoking that proved useful in political strategy. For example, Republican political strategist Steve Bannon publicized pop-culture conflicts during

2964-687: The "wars". According to Mark McKenna's analysis for the Australian Parliamentary Library, John Howard believed that Paul Keating portrayed Australia pre- Whitlam (Prime Minister from 1972 to 1975) in an unduly negative light; while Keating sought to distance the modern Labor movement from its historical support for the monarchy and for the White Australia policy by arguing that it was the conservative Australian parties which had been barriers to national progress. He accused Britain of having abandoned Australia during

3042-493: The 1998 Bringing Them Home Report, Howard passed a Parliamentary Motion of Reconciliation describing treatment of Aborigines as the "most blemished chapter" in Australian history, but he refused to issue an official apology. Howard saw an apology as inappropriate as it would imply "intergeneration guilt"; he said that "practical" measures were a better response to contemporary Aboriginal disadvantage. Keating has argued for

3120-502: The 2000s, voting for Republicans began to correlate heavily with traditionalist or orthodox religious belief across diverse religious sects. Voting for Democrats became more correlated with liberal or modernist religious belief, and with being nonreligious . Belief in scientific conclusions, such as climate change , also became tightly coupled with political party affiliation in this era, causing climate scholar Andrew Hoffman to observe that climate change had "become enmeshed in

3198-492: The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump , encouraging a young audience to "come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump." Some observers in Canada have used the term "culture war" to refer to differing values between Western versus Eastern Canada , urban versus rural Canada , as well as conservatism versus liberalism and progressivism . The phrase has also been used to describe

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3276-605: The German Kulturkampf of Prussia also featured anti-Polish sentiment . In the English language, the term culture war is a calque of the German word Kulturkampf (culture struggle), which refers to an historical event in Germany. The term appears as the title of an 1875 British book review of a German pamphlet. Since the time that James Davison Hunter first applied the concept of culture wars to American life,

3354-643: The States by people who earlier European immigrants considered 'alien'. It was also a result of the cultural shifts and modernizing trends of the Roaring Twenties , culminating in the presidential campaign of Al Smith in 1928. In subsequent decades during the 20th century, the term was published occasionally in American newspapers. Historian Matthew Dallek argues the John Birch Society (JBS)

3432-891: The absence of shared policy preferences among the bloc's members. A number of conflicts about diversity in popular culture occurring in the 2010s, such as the Gamergate controversy , Comicsgate and the Sad Puppies science fiction voting campaign, were identified in the media as being examples of the culture war. Journalist Caitlin Dewey described Gamergate as a " proxy war " for a larger culture war between those who want greater inclusion of women and minorities in cultural institutions versus anti-feminists and traditionalists who do not. The perception that culture war conflict had been demoted from electoral politics to popular culture led writer Jack Meserve to call popular movies, games, and writing

3510-428: The adversarial nature of intellectual debate", a view contested by others, including conservative commentator Janet Albrechtsen . Climate change in Australia is also considered a highly divisive or politically controversial topic , to the point it is sometimes called a "culture war". According to political scientist Constance G. Anthony, American culture war perspectives on human sexuality were exported to Africa as

3588-621: The controversy in Poland is the removal of Soviet War Memorials which is divisive because some Poles viewed the memorials positively as commemorations of their ancestors who died during World War II while others felt negatively due to the oppression that some Poles experienced under the Soviet-backed Polish People's Republic Culture war in Hungary is alleged by Kim Scheppele to be a disguise for democratic backsliding by Viktor Orbán. Ukraine, meanwhile, has experienced

3666-458: The culture war" by political scientist Jeremiah Castle, as the polarization of public opinion on these two topics resembles that of previous culture war issues. In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic , North Dakota governor Doug Burgum described opposition to wearing face masks as a "senseless" culture war issue that jeopardizes human safety. This broader understanding of culture war issues in

3744-437: The debate over state-school history curricula in the United States in the 1990s. In particular, debates over the development of national educational standards in 1994 revolved around whether the study of American history should be a "celebratory" or "critical" undertaking and involved such prominent public figures as Lynne Cheney , Rush Limbaugh , and historian Gary Nash . A political view called neoconservatism shifted

3822-500: The eradication of remaining symbols linked to colonial origins: including deference for ANZAC Day , for the Australian flag and for the monarchy in Australia , while Howard supported these institutions. Unlike fellow Labor leaders and contemporaries, Bob Hawke (Prime Minister 1983–1991) and Kim Beazley (Labor Party leader 2005–2006), Keating never traveled to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day ceremonies. In 2008 he described those who gathered there as "misguided". In 2006 John Howard said in

3900-467: The example of prohibition in the interbellum United States, and notes how the cultural conflict between pro- and anti-alcohol groups created opportunities for illegal activity; another similar example he lists is that of the war on drugs . Kornblum also classifies the cultural conflict as one of the major types of conflict theory . In The Clash of Civilizations Samuel P. Huntington proposes that people's cultural and religious identities will be

3978-399: The game, their versions of what transpired were so starkly different it appeared as though they had watched two totally different games. Some may wonder why in-group favoritism takes place, even in arbitrarily assigned groups where group members have nothing in common other than the group to which they were assigned. Research points to unconscious decision-making processes that takes place at

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4056-442: The idea has been subject to questions about whether "culture wars" names a real phenomenon, and if so, whether the phenomenon it describes is a cause of, or merely a result of, membership in groups like political parties and religions. Culture wars have also been subject to the criticism of being artificial, imposed, or asymmetric conflicts, rather than a result of authentic differences between cultures. Researchers have differed about

4134-459: The influence of culture as being powerful and "unconscious, influencing conflict and attempts to resolve conflict in imperceptible ways." She states that the impact of culture is huge, affecting "name, frame, blame, and attempt to tame conflicts." Due to the huge impact that culture has on us, LeBaron finds it important to explain the "complications of conflict:" In-group and out-group In social psychology and sociology , an in-group

4212-496: The instruments of propaganda ), and the intensity exists along a spectrum from mild to complete dehumanization of the " othered " group (such as through pseudospeciation ). The psychological categorization of people into in-group and out-group members is associated with a variety of phenomena. The following examples have all received a great deal of academic attention. This refers to the fact that under certain conditions, people will prefer and have affinity for one's in-group over

4290-445: The left have argued that such [culture war] battles [a]re 'distractions' from the real fight over class and economic issues." In American usage, culture war may imply a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal . This usage originated in the 1920s when urban and rural American values came into closer conflict. This followed several decades of immigration to

4368-500: The mainstream of society over economic matters of public policy and of consumption . As practical politics, a culture war is about social policy wedge issues that are based on abstract arguments about values , morality , and lifestyle meant to provoke political cleavage in a multicultural society. In the history of Germany, the Kulturkampf (Cultural Struggle) was the seven-year political conflict (1871–1878) between

4446-884: The media. The greatest predictor of opinion was how people voted in the UK's referendum on membership of the European Union, Brexit , yet even among those who voted 'Leave', 75% agreed "it is important to be attentive to issues of race and social justice". Similarly, even among Remainers and those who last voted for the Labour Party, there was moderately strong support for several socially conservative positions. Poland's Law and Justice party, Hungary's Viktor Orbán , Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić , and Slovenia's Janez Janša have each been accused of fomenting culture wars in their respective countries by encouraging dissent, resistance to LGBT rights, and restrictions on abortion. One facet of

4524-437: The mid-late 2010s and 2020s is associated with a political strategy called " owning the libs ." Conservative media figures employing this strategy emphasize and expand upon culture war issues with the goal of upsetting liberals. According to Nicole Hemmer of Columbia University, this strategy is a substitute for the cohesive conservative ideology that existed during the Cold War . It holds a conservative voting bloc together in

4602-491: The only defense of America against the threat of communism . When this threat ended upon the close of the Cold War, Evangelical leaders transferred the perceived source of threat from foreign communism to domestic changes in gender roles and sexuality. During the 1992 presidential election , commentator Pat Buchanan mounted a campaign for the Republican nomination for president against incumbent George H. W. Bush . In

4680-488: The other, thus making the adherents circulate and parrot disinformation as a rhetorical ammunition against their perceived opponents. Political scientist Alan Wolfe participated in a series of scholarly debates in the 1990s and 2000s against Hunter, claiming that Hunter's concept of culture wars did not accurately describe the opinions or behavior of Americans, which Wolfe claimed were more united than polarized. A meta-analysis of opinion data from 1992 to 2012 published in

4758-565: The out-group, or anyone viewed as outside the in-group. This can be expressed in one's evaluation of others, linking, allocation of resources, and many other ways. How we perceive the actions of others are also affected by in-group favoritism. People may perceive the same action very differently depending on whether the action was executed by a member of the same group or a member of a different group. In fact, people tend to evaluate actions of their own group or team members much more favorably than those of outgroup members. An illustrative example of

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4836-519: The perception that group members are similar to one another. An outcome of this is the out-group homogeneity effect. This refers to the perception of members of an out-group as being homogenous, while members of one's in-group are perceived as being diverse, e.g. "they are alike; we are diverse". This is especially likely to occur in regard to negative characteristics. Under certain conditions, in-group members can be perceived as being similar to one another in regard to positive characteristics. This effect

4914-412: The political conflicts that would dominate the political media discussions in the 2020s. American conservatives took issue with the perceived worldwide dominance of leftism in international politics and corporate activity, anti-nationalism , and secular human rights policies and activism not based on Abrahamic religious worldviews. While traditional culture war issues, like abortion, continue to be

4992-446: The primary source of conflict in the post- Cold War world. Michelle LeBaron describes different cultures as "underground rivers that run through our lives and relationships, giving us messages that shape our perceptions, attributions, judgments, and ideas of self and other." She states that cultural messages "shape our understandings" when two or more people are present in regards to relationships, conflict, and peace. LeBaron discusses

5070-564: The region. A 2021 report from King's College London argued that many people's views on cultural issues in Britain had become tied up with the side of the Brexit debate with which they identify, while the public party-political identities, although not as strong, show similar alignments and that around half the country held relatively strong views on "culture war" issues such as debates on Britain's colonial history or Black Lives Matter. However,

5148-623: The report concluded Britain's cultural and political divide was not as stark as the Republican–Democratic divide in the US and that a sizeable section of the public can be categorised as having either moderate views or as being disengaged from social debates. It also found that The Guardian , as opposed to the centre-right newspapers, was more likely to talk about the culture wars. The Conservative Party have been described as attempting to ignite culture wars in regard to "conservative values" under

5226-497: The same intensity as in-group faces. Prior research has also shown that the devaluation and dehumanization of outgroup members is exacerbated when the initial encoding and configural processing of an outgroup face is impeded. So not only does this initial encoding process dehumanize outgroup members, it also contributes to a homogeneity effect, whereby outgroup members are perceived as more similar to each other than ingroup members. Categorization of people into social groups increases

5304-435: The same lines on these issues, so as to constitute two warring groups, defined primarily not by nominal religion, ethnicity, social class, or even political affiliation, but rather by ideological world-views . Hunter characterized this polarity as stemming from opposite impulses, toward what he referred to as Progressivism and as Orthodoxy . Others have adopted the dichotomy with varying labels. For example, Bill O'Reilly ,

5382-434: The so-called culture wars ." Topics traditionally associated with culture war were not prominent in media coverage of the 2008 election season, with the exception of coverage of vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin , who drew attention to her conservative religion and created a performative climate change denialism brand for herself. Palin's defeat in the election and subsequent resignation as governor of Alaska caused

5460-407: The speed of the hand movements. On average participants judged members of their own teams to be faster, although the hand movements were the exact same speed across the board. Similarly, Hastorf and Cantril conducted a pioneering study in 1954, where students of both Princeton and Dartmouth viewed a contentious football game between their two teams. Although they had watched the same motion picture of

5538-548: The start of the Russo-Ukrainian War . One disputed issue is whether Poland bears any responsibility for the Holocaust , or whether Poland was entirely a victim of Nazi Germany . This dispute is embodied by the "Polish death camp" controversy (involving concentration camps that had been built by Nazi Germany during World War II on German-occupied Polish soil) and an attempt to address that controversy with

5616-588: The tendency of groups to make decisions that are more extreme than the initial inclination of its members, although polarization toward the most central beliefs has also been observed. It has been shown that this effect is related to a psychologically salient in-group and outgroup categorization. In evolutionary psychology , in-group favoritism is seen as an evolved mechanism selected for the advantages of coalition affiliation. It has been argued that characteristics such as gender and ethnicity are inflexible or even essential features of such systems. However, there

5694-498: The tenure of Prime Minister Boris Johnson . However, others argue that it is the left who are engaging in "culture wars", particularly against liberal values, accepted words and British institutions. Observers such as Johns Hopkins University professor Yascha Mounk and journalist and author Louise Perry have argued that the collapse in support for the Labour Party during the 2019 United Kingdom general election came as

5772-472: The terms of the debate in the early 2000s. Neoconservatives differed from their opponents in that they interpreted problems facing the nation as moral issues rather than economic or political ones. For example, neoconservatives saw the decline of the traditional family structure as well as the decline of religion in American society as spiritual crises that required a spiritual response. Critics accused neoconservatives of confusing cause and effect . During

5850-605: The way this phenomenon takes place can be demonstrated just by arbitrarily assigning a person to a distinct and objectively meaningless novel group; this alone is sufficient to create intergroup biases in which members of the perceiver's own group are preferentially favored. This phenomenon was demonstrated in an empirical study conducted by Molenberghs and colleagues in 2013. In the study, participants were arbitrarily divided into two teams where they watched videos of individuals of competing teams and individuals from their own team perform hand actions. Participants were then asked to judge

5928-654: Was an early promoter of culture war ideas. Scholar Celestini Carmen traces the JBS's apocalyptic culture war rhetoric through the connections of Christian right leaders such as Tim LaHaye and Phyllis Schlafly to the JBS and their founding of the Moral Majority . James Davison Hunter , a sociologist at the University of Virginia , introduced the expression again in his 1991 publication, Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America . Hunter described what he saw as

6006-768: Was depicted as under liberal attack, seeming to necessitate a culture war to defend the tradition. Political scientists Matt Grossmann and David A. Hopkins have written about an asymmetry between the US's two major political parties, saying the Republican party should be understood as an ideological movement built to wage political conflict, and the Democratic party as a coalition of social groups with less ability to impose ideological discipline on members. This encourages Republicans to perpetuate and to draw new issues into culture wars, because Republicans are well equipped to fight such wars. According to The Guardian , "many on

6084-540: Was itself evidence of America's polarization. The culture war had significant impact on national politics in the 1990s. The rhetoric of the Christian Coalition of America may have weakened president George H. W. Bush's chances for re-election in 1992 and helped his successor, Bill Clinton , win reelection in 1996. On the other hand, the rhetoric of conservative cultural warriors helped Republicans gain control of Congress in 1994. The culture wars influenced

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