Empirical Illustration of the Hierarchical Organisation of Social Thought: A Domino Effect?

Abstract

The "architecture of social thinking", a model presented by Rouquette (1996) suggests that various forms of social thought may be conceived as being part of a hierarchical organisation. Our study aims to show how that variation in a higher level of social thought (ideology) can trigger variations in the lower levels (social representations, attitudes and opinions). Our study compared two ideologically distinct groups (N=81): the first group (n=25) comprised participants who had reported a religious affiliation (Catholicism), while the second (n=56) comprised those who had reported no religious affiliation. We compared participant's representational and attitudinal fields towards a scenario on a charitable activity promoted by the Church. Results indicated that representations and attitudes may depend on higher levels. These findings suggest the hypothesis of a domino effect among the successive levels of the architecture of social thought.