Rebels and Obligers Mapped to the U.S. Political Compass
Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies for Dealing with Expectations
Levels of Compliance With Expectations
Rubin’s (2021) framework is based on research about how people respond to outer expectations—such as meeting work deadlines or answering a request from a friend—and inner expectations, such as keeping a new year’s resolution. Before exploring more, you might take the quiz to see where your responses land you. The types are listed in order of their size, according to Rubin’s dataset.
· Obliger: meets outer expectations, motivated by external accountability (attuned to societal consensus & authority) (41% of respondents)
· Questioner: meets inner expectations; meets an outer expectation only if it makes sense, seems justified, if it meets idiosyncratic inner logic and values (24% of respondents)
· Upholder: readily meets outer and inner expectations, motivated by external accountability (alliance with the powerful) and internal accountability (19% of respondents)
· Rebel: resists all expectations, outer and inner alike; seeks a sense of choice, even freedom from their own past decisions, self-identity and values drive their decisions, not sense of obligation (17% of respondents)
As a practical example, consider the following pandemic-related behaviors related to government mandates and social expectations:
· Those who wore a mask when alone on a sidewalk are likely obligers, going along with outer expectations even in circumstances where the majority wouldn’t say it’s helpful or necessary.
· Questioners might comply or not, based on what seemed more convincing or practical for the context they were in, even if they didn’t believe it was necessary for their own or others’ health. Alternatively, they may have dug in their heels and defied mandates when they believed there was little to no risk and that compliance was a detriment to the greater good, based on economic stagnation and/or children’s social development.
· Those speaking derisively of the obedient “sheeple” were likely rebels. They may have disdain for compliance even when compliance is advantageous or makes sense.
· Upholders might have had the most difficult time, as they were likely to weigh their own conviction against adopting what was expected for each context they were in.
Rubin’s Four Tendencies Mapped to the U.S. Political Compass
If I had to make it simplistic, I would map the quadrants as follows, with Rubin’s (2021) percentages somewhat matching the size ranking of the parties. These placements are my guesses about how Rubin’s theory may relate to political affiliation. Compare these tendencies with the themes of conformity versus rebellion from Jost’s research (as cited in Greenberg & Jonas, 2003).
Rubin’s Four Tendencies Mapped to Pew Political Types
These placements are my guesses about how Rubin’s (2021) theory may relate to Pew Research Center political types. Each type would tend to try to motivate others the same way they themselves are motivated.
Establishment
The establishment emphasizes the rule of law and social approval (expectations of external consequences such as punishment for breaking rules, whether in the workplace, government, or church). Both obligers and upholders may have strong motivation for adherence to social norms, as external approval seeking. If religious, the obliger or upholder is motivated by approval within that setting, and possibly the expectation of blessings gained for good works.
Anti-establishment
The anti-establishment left and right both deviate from the expectations of the norm. The rebel on the right is more often motivated by personal freedom for themselves. Similarly, the progressive left is motivated by desire for freedom for themselves, but if comfortable enuf in their social standing and resources, they may be more motivated to work toward freedom of others they deem oppressed. The questioners resist outer expectations but go along if they make sense. These are idealists focused on inner expectations. Their search for a path toward a more peaceful and just world might take the form of self-contained spirituality or social justice work.
Nature Versus Nurture
While this labeling of quadrants might make some sense, it’s obviously simplistic. Psychological research has formed a consensus that behavior is always partly influenced by nature and partly by nurture. In other words, there is often a heritable trait that is either enhanced, suppressed, or otherwise shaped depending on the conditions and upbringing. Thus it would be more accurate to discuss behavior of a temperament as it is expressed within a context. If a rebel temperament is born into a libertarian context, they’ll be a good fit with their compatriots. Born into a pro-establishment context, a rebel temperament might find subtle ways to rebel. They may rebel in a way that makes use of institutional power, such as flouting norms whenever that becomes useful to advance their ascendancy up the hierarchy of an institution. These rebels may promote policies that reflect an allegiance to the values of their native context, especially if they contradict the local or national norms. Alternatively, a rebel may become a class traitor like Nick Hanauer who created the podcast Pitchfork Economics to rail against the excesses of the 1%, a category he became part of by the luck of investing modestly in Amazon early on. A rebel in a green context may be drawn to the occupy movement and may be opposed to pro-business ideology, finding themselves only slightly more extreme than their questioner companions. An obliger born into another context than pro-establishment left is most likely to tow the party line of their native context, but may do so without obvious fervor. The obliger temperament is more likely to go along to get along.
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Repeat of Tables Including Quadrants Content
This section repeats the writing in the images, for any who have difficulty reading in that format.
Rubin’s Four Tendencies Mapped to the U.S. Political Compass
Auth-left Quadrant: obligers
Auth-right Quadrant: questioners
Lib-right (Yellow) Quadrant: rebels
Lib-left (Green) Quadrant: upholders
Rubin’s Four Tendencies Mapped to Pew Political Types
Auth-left Quadrant
Moderate Democrats: obligers
Establishment liberals: upholders
Auth-right Quadrant
Committed conservatives: questioners
Faith and flag conservatives: upholders and obligers
Lib-right (Yellow) Quadrant
Populist right: rebels
Dissident right: questioners
Lib-left (Green) Quadrant
Progressive left: upholders
Outsider left: upholders and questioners
References
Greenberg, J., & Jonas, E. (2003). Psychological motives and political orientation—the left, the right, and the rigid: Comment on Jost et al. (2003). Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 376–382. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.376
Rubin, G. (2021). The four tendencies quiz. https://quiz.gretchenrubin.com/