A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right

Abstract

The 2016 U.S. presidential election coincided with the rise of the “alternative right,” or alt-right. Alt-right associates have wielded considerable influence on the current administration and on social discourse, but the movement’s loose organizational structure has led to disparate portrayals of its members’ psychology and made it difficult to decipher its aims and reach. To systematically explore the alt-right’s psychology, we recruited two U.S. samples: An exploratory sample through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk ( N = 827, alt-right n = 447) and a larger, nationally representative sample through the National Opinion Research Center’s Amerispeak panel ( N = 1,283, alt-right n = 71–160, depending on the definition). We estimate that 6% of the U.S. population and 10% of Trump voters identify as alt-right. Alt-right adherents reported a psychological profile more reflective of the desire for group-based dominance than economic anxiety. Although both the alt-right and non-alt-right Trump voters differed substantially from non-alt-right, non-Trump voters, the alt-right and Trump voters were quite similar, differing mainly in the alt-right’s especially high enthusiasm for Trump, suspicion of mainstream media, trust in alternative media, and desire for collective action on behalf of Whites. We argue for renewed consideration of overt forms of bias in contemporary intergroup research.

Whites’ racial identity centrality and social dominance orientation are interactively associated with far‐right extremism

“…Furthermore, a recent review by van Prooijen and Krouwel (2018) identifies that extremists are more likely to have experienced psychological distress, and they tend to be cognitive simplistic, intolerant of differences, and have overconfidence in their own judgements. Finally, in their quest to understand the psychological profile of alt-right, Forscher and Kteily (2019) showed that people who identify with alt-right, a far-right group, tend to be characterized with a high level of social dominance and authoritarianism, and they are concerned about discrimination against Whites and men, among other things. Therefore, past studies have identified quite a few personality variables and traits that are associated with far-right extremism.…”

“…Past studies suggest that White identity is predictive of support for conservative racial attitudes and policies that are not as extreme (e.g., Jardina, 2019), so it is possible that Whites who see their race as an important part of their identity are more tolerant and/or susceptible to far-right extremism as well. Indeed, the theme of Whiteness is often found in the narrative of far-right groups (e.g., Forscher & Kteily, 2019) and correlation has been found between White identity centrality and affective feeling towards KKK (Jardina, 2019). Therefore, the association between White identity and farright extremism proposed in this paper is by no means surprising.…”

“…Therefore, the association between White identity and farright extremism proposed in this paper is by no means surprising. However, whether Whites' racial identity centrality is indeed related to the rise of the most recent social movement (e.g., the 'Alt-right'; Forscher & Kteily, 2019) and far-right politics (i.e., controversial policies that are deemed by the United Nations as violations of its basic principles or human rights, such as Executive Order 13769 or the 'Muslim ban' and separating family at border; Cumming-Bruce, 2018; Sengupta, 2017) is still an underexplored psychological research topic.…”

Feelings of anxiety among radical Muslim youths in the Netherlands: A psychological exploration

“…According to the alt-right groups and individuals, there is an imminent danger of the extinction of White people through a growing group of non-White people. According to various articles, the perpetrators of Charlottesville and Christchurch also belong to this growing alt-right group (Forscher & Kteily, 2020; Peters & Besley, 2017). These groups indicate that they increasingly feel themselves to be victims of, for example, violence against Muslims (Bevensee & Ross, 2018).…”

The Alt-Right and Global Information Warfare

“…The Southern Poverty Law Center study of Alt-Right-linked killings released in 2018 found over 100 people murdered with the majority of the killers being under 30 (thus very exposed to the internet) and all male [67]. This is not surprising when reflecting on the research done in "A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right" which found that adherents "expressed higher Dark Triad traits, social dominance orientation, and authoritarianism; reported high levels of aggression; and exhibited extreme levels of overt intergroup bias, including blatant dehumanization of racial minorities [6]. This study is further reflected in the Associated Press call to encourage reporters to not call adherents by the specific term "Alt-Right," which they deemed to be a deception designed to hide their true allegiances to white supremacy movements [17].…”