Expanding concepts of materialism and territoriality from material objects to beliefs, new research by Aiden P. Gregg, Nikhila Mahadevan, and Constantine Sedikides (University of Southampton) suggests that people view their core beliefs as valued possessions and develop a sense of mental materialism towards them. As a consequence, people might react with a sense of ideological territoriality when they have to fight to protect their beliefs, which can lead to intellectual arrogance. The authors examine how differences in communion and agency predict whether people take a hostile epistemic stance (rejecting reality) or a deferential one (embracing reality).

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