An Ideology by Any Other Name

The terms ‘liberal’ and ‘conservative’ are prominent features of political discourse in the United States, and many citizens choose to identify with one of these ideological labels. Yet, many citizens do not fit comfortably in either of these categories, and comparatively little is known about the breadth and importance of other ideological labels in the mass public. We pose a novel but simple survey question to a large nonprobability sample of survey respondents (n = 4,655) to measure self-identification with up to 14 different ideological labels, and trace the associations of this self-labeling with individual differences and political attitudes. We find that identification with alternative ideological labels is widespread in our sample and contains important information about political attitudes that common survey questions on ideology do not capture. In a preregistered conjoint experiment (n = 2,433), we show that attachment to alternative labels predicts vote choice in both primary and general election contexts. Our novel approach to measuring multidimensional ideological attachments provides a foundation for expanded scholarship on ideology beyond the confines of the liberal-conservative framework.

Duke Scholars

Author Christopher Johnston Political Science