Is the myth of left-wing authoritarianism itself a myth?

Abstract

Is left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) closer to a myth or a reality? Twelve studies test the empirical existence and theoretical relevance of LWA. Study 1 reveals that both conservative and liberal Americans identify a large number of left-wing authoritarians in their lives. In Study 2, participants explicitly rate items from a recently-developed LWA measure as valid measurements of authoritarianism. Studies 3–11 show that persons who score high on this same LWA scale possess the traits associated with models of authoritarianism: LWA is positively related to threat sensitivity across multiple areas, including general ecological threats (Study 3), COVID disease threat (Study 4), Belief in a Dangerous World (Study 5), and Trump threat (Study 6). Further, high-LWA persons show more support for restrictive political correctness norms (Study 7), rate African-Americans and Jews more negatively (Studies 8–9), and show more cognitive rigidity (Studies 10 and 11). These effects hold when controlling for political ideology and when looking only within liberals, and further are similar in magnitude to comparable effects for right-wing authoritarianism. Study 12 uses the World Values Survey to provide cross-cultural evidence of Left-Wing Authoritarianism around the globe. Taken in total, this large array of triangulating evidence from 12 studies comprised of over 8,000 participants from the U.S. and over 66,000 participants world-wide strongly suggests that left-wing authoritarianism is much closer to a reality than a myth.

Examining change in social dominance and authoritarianism during New Zealand's nationwide COVID‐19 lockdown

“…This implies that people high in RWA may be supportive of governments that enable strict measures during crises, such as border closures and lockdowns, irrespective of whether such responses are championed by traditional right-wing elites. Given that prior research shows that left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) is also positively associated with a desire for COVID-19 restrictions (Conway et al, 2023), our results highlight that RWA and LWA may be shaped by similar motivations, such as group security and conformity, despite their apparent conceptual distinctions (Altemeyer, 1996;Costello et al, 2022). Indeed, a recent study also situated in New Zealand's unique context showed that both left-and right-wing individuals supported items reflecting the authoritarian submission dimension of RWA during the country's nationwide lockdown in 2020 (Winters et al, 2022).…”

“…Conflict over pandemic management has been attributed to ideological divides between liberals who endorse protective measures (such as lockdowns) and conservatives who oppose them (Conway et al., 2023; Gollwitzer et al., 2020; Van Bavel et al., 2020). Such findings do, however, contradict previous work showing that conservatives are more threat sensitive (Hibbing et al., 2014), including to diseases (Inbar et al., 2012).…”

Young adults fall for non-democratic ideology regardless of their education and political leaning: a data report from a Czech physiological study

“…Conversely, "regular" conservatives and liberals exhibited saliently lower figures. It is necessary to emphasize that in CEE, authoritarianism has also been detected within the left-leaning spectrum or on both poles of the left-right scale (De Regt et al, 2011;Aspelund et al, 2013;Conway et al, 2022). Hatemi and McDermott (2012) felicitously foreground that the overall complexity of this type of research is being amplified by the "chicken-and-egg problem."…”

We Need Tough Brothers and Sisters in a Tight World: Cultural Tightness Leads to a Preference for Dominant and Muscular Leaders

“…It is worth noting that there is increasing evidence of left-wing authoritarianism (LWA) and that LWA and RWA can share similar features, such as dogmatism, cognitive rigidity, and threat sensitivity (Conway et al, 2018;Costello et al, 2022). A recent study showed that ecological stress has similar effects on both LWA and RWA (Conway et al, 2023). Therefore, it would be intriguing for future research to test whether cultural tightness could result in the body preference of leaders via both RWA and LWA.…”