Pandemic threat and authoritarian attitudes in Europe: An empirical analysis of the exposure to COVID-19

Filsinger, Maximilian; Freitag, Markus

doi:10.1177/14651165221082517

Cited by 15 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 59 publications

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“…I further explored differences across subdimensions of authoritarianism revealing that contexts of societal crisis increased authoritarian submission (mostly independently of trust in science and authoritarian disposition), while their effects on authoritarian aggression varied largely with levels of trust in science and authoritarian disposition. This finding is in line with research showing that COVID-19 related threat increases authoritarian submission, but not authoritarian aggression (Filsinger and Freitag, 2022).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Thus, individuals may strive for control over threatening situations by enforcing social rules that facilitate collective action. In line with this notion, large shifts in authoritarianism were found in response to various types of societal threats (for an overview, see Schnelle et al, 2021), including terrorism and crime (Roccato et al, 2013;Manzi et al, 2015;Vasilopoulos et al, 2018) as well as economic crisis (Doty et al, 1991;Jugert and Duckitt, 2009;Kakkar and Sivanathan, 2017), but also climate change (Fritsche et al, 2012;Barth et al, 2018;Uhl et al, 2018) and the COVID-19 crisis (Amat et al, 2020;Filsinger and Freitag, 2022).…”

Section: Authoritarianism In the Context Of Societal Crisismentioning

confidence: 82%

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Becoming authoritarian for the greater good? Authoritarian attitudes in context of the societal crises of COVID-19 and climate change

Hirsch

2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

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Authoritarianism is widely conceived as destructive phenomenon that threatens liberal societies. However, some scholars suggest that authoritarianism is beneficial both for individuals' sense of control and goal attainment within groups. In line with this reasoning, collective problems, such as the COVID-19 crisis and climate change, may go hand in hand with increased levels of authoritarianism. While individuals may generally reject the abstract ideas of authoritarian rule and intolerance, societal threat may require individuals to weigh liberal values against needs for collective unity and action. Thus, individuals are expected to show less support for abstract authoritarian ideas compared to authoritarian ideas that are directed at dealing with a specific societal crisis (crisis-related authoritarianism). Following the notion that authoritarianism serves as an antiliberal means for achieving collective goals, relative increases in crisis-related authoritarianism hinge on the rejection of the means being outweighed by the perceived importance of the goal. While authoritarian disposition captures general tendencies to accept the means, trust in science serves as a proxy for the perceived importance of COVID-19 and climate change mitigation. The relative increase in crisis-related authoritarianism should be particularly pronounced among individuals who are not predisposed to authoritarianism and who trust in science. Findings from a cross-national survey experiment in Germany (N = 1,480) and Spain (N = 1,511) support this reasoning. Participants answered four items covering authoritarian submission and aggression either on an abstract level (control condition), or applied to the COVID-19 crisis or the climate change crisis. Participants were more supportive of authoritarian ideas targeted at a specific collective problem as compared to abstract authoritarian ideas. Furthermore, the differences in authoritarianism between the control condition and the two societal crisis conditions decreased with authoritarian disposition and increased with trust in science. Exploratory analyses suggest that the main differences across experimental conditions are driven by authoritarian submission while the interaction effects are rather driven by authoritarian aggression. The study underlines the role of authoritarian ideas for collective goal attainment that exists above and beyond stable personal dispositions. As such, it sheds light on the conditions under which citizens conceive authoritarianism as justifiable.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Authoritarianism In the Context Of Societal Crisismentioning

confidence: 82%

Becoming authoritarian for the greater good? Authoritarian attitudes in context of the societal crises of COVID-19 and climate change

Hirsch

2022

Front. Polit. Sci.

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“…25/2020). In this context, reference should also be made to the contributions by Filsinger and Freitag ( 2022 ) and Freitag and Hofstetter ( 2022 ), who are elaborating theoretically and empirically similar designs within the same research program.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The pandemic and the question of national belonging: Exposure to covid‐19 threat and conceptions of nationhood

Wamsler

Freitag

Erhardt

et al. 2022

European J Political Res

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Drawing on the behavioural immune system hypothesis, we argue that the prevalence of the Covid‐19 pandemic threat in an individual's respective environment relates to exclusive, ethnic conceptions of nationhood. Referring to the affective intelligence theory, we maintain that specific negative emotions are prompted by the perception of being exposed to a pandemic threat, and these emotional states in turn structure political preferences regarding national belonging. Using an original survey in six European countries during the first peak of the pandemic in late April and early May 2020, we analyze both the impact of individual Covid‐19 experiences and the contextual exposure to a pandemic threat through hierarchical analyses of 105 European regions. Our empirical analysis shows that exposure to the pandemic is linked to stronger ethnic national identities for both levels of analysis. We also find that anger substantially mediates this relationship and has primacy over feelings of fear. Taken together, our results indicate that the behavioural immune system appears as a pervasive obstacle to inclusive orientations.

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“…Hartman et al (2021) shows that perceptions of threat stemming from the virus causing COVID-19 are strongly associated with nationalism, right-wing authoritarianism, and outgroup derogation in the UK and Ireland (see also Lu et al (2021) for similar results in the context of the US). Filsinger & Freitag (2022) demonstrate that reported levels of fear and worry predict authoritarian attitudes in four Western European countries (Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and the UK) during the second wave of the pandemic (late 2020 to spring 2021). Dipoppa et al (2021) argues that the threat of infection triggered violence against certain minority groups, leading to an increase in hate crimes at the onset of the pandemic in Italy.…”

Section: Covid-19 and The Effects Of Fear On Political Attitudesmentioning

confidence: 84%

COVID-19 related anxieties do not decrease support for liberal democracy

Anghel

Cloos

2022

Preprint

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Studies carried out at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic confirmed that under the impression of fear individuals were more willing to tolerate violations of liberal-democratic norms, and supported discriminatory policies to preserve public safety. But what are the potential consequences of the pandemic on citizens’ attitudes beyond its peak? We conducted an original experiment in which we manipulate individuals’ cognitive accessibility of their fears related to COVID-19 one and a half years after the onset of the pandemic. We fielded the experiment in Hungary and Romania–two cases most likely to see such attitudes amplify under the condition of fear. Our intervention was successful in elevating respondents’ levels of worry, anxiety, and fear when thinking about infectious diseases like COVID-19. However, these emotions did not affect individuals’ levels of rightwing authoritarianism, nationalism, or outgroup hostility, or their preferences for specific discriminatory policies aimed to fight a potential resurgence of COVID-19.

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Pandemic threat and authoritarian attitudes in Europe: An empirical analysis of the exposure to COVID-19

Cited by 15 publications

References 59 publications

Becoming authoritarian for the greater good? Authoritarian attitudes in context of the societal crises of COVID-19 and climate change

Becoming authoritarian for the greater good? Authoritarian attitudes in context of the societal crises of COVID-19 and climate change

The pandemic and the question of national belonging: Exposure to covid‐19 threat and conceptions of nationhood

COVID-19 related anxieties do not decrease support for liberal democracy

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