Racial Diversity and the Dynamics of Authoritarianism

Velez, Yamil; Lavine, Howard

doi:10.1086/688078

Cited by 33 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…More research is needed to explore whether individual‐level factors influence sensitivity to these deservingness aspects. For instance, it seems plausible that people with highly authoritarian values would be more alert to ingroup/outgroup cues (Feldman, Lavine, Lodge, & Verhulst, ; Velez & Lavine, ). Second, the present design cannot uncover whether humanitarianism is a biologically shaped trait in human help‐giving psychology that develops in connection with the deservingness heuristic or whether the deservingness heuristic is automatically up‐ and down‐regulated when people learn to disregard or embrace humanitarianism.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions

Hansen

2018

Political Psychology

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Citizens' welfare opinions are highly susceptible to cues about welfare recipients' deservingness. Extant research argues that this deservingness heuristic is a universal feature of human help-giving psychology, implying that all citizens, regardless of their values, are evenly affected by deservingness cues. This article suggests that the deservingness heuristic is much more conditional than previously appreciated. Specifically, its influence on welfare opinions is conditioned by humanitarianism: the belief that others in need should be helped. The more people adhere to this value, the more they need information that signals whether others are genuinely needy. Citizens should thus rely more on the deservingness heuristic the stronger their humanitarian values are. I find support for this argument in three survey experiments (two nationally representative), where citizens are exposed to cues that welfare recipients are either lazy (undeserving) or unlucky (deserving). These findings have important implications for our understanding of citizens' welfare opinions.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions

Hansen

2018

Political Psychology

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“…Studies that have measured subjective or objective social diversity have conceptually replicated these results. For example, Velez and Lavine () found a stronger relationship between authoritarianism and intolerance toward outgroups among individuals living in areas with higher levels of racial diversity (see also Van Assche, Roest, Dhont, & Van Hiel, ). Similarly, Johnston et al () found a stronger relationship between authoritarianism and perceived cultural threat among individuals in areas where the Latino population had grown more in recent years.…”

Section: The Psychological Bases Of Political Preferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

Federico

Malka

2018

Political Psychology

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Research on the dispositional origins of political preferences is flourishing, and the primary conclusion drawn from this work is that stronger needs for security and certainty attract people to a broad-based politically conservative ideology. Though this literature covers much ground, most integrative assessments of it have paid insufficient attention to the presence and implications of contingencies in the relationship between dispositional attributes and political attitudes. In this article, we review research showing that relationships between needs for security and certainty and political preferences vary considerably-sometimes to the point of directional shifts-on the basis of (1) issue domain and (2) contextual factors governing the content and volume of political discourse individuals are exposed to. On the basis of this evidence, we argue that relationships between dispositional attributes and political preferences vary in the extent to which they reflect an organic functional resonance between dispositions and preferences or identity-expressive motivation to adopt a political attitude merely because it is discursively packaged with other need-congruent attitudes. We contend that such a distinction is critical to gaining a realistic understanding of the origins and nature of ideological belief systems, and we consequently recommend an increased focus on issue-based and contextual variation in relationships between dispositions and political preferences.KEY WORDS: political preferences, ideology, needs for security and certainty, political expertise Why do individuals' political preferences lean to the left or to the right? To put it mildly, a great amount of social-scientific ink has been spilled addressing this question. Some perspectives suggest that political preferences are a function of interests associated with the positions of the social groups one belongs to, with members of more powerful groups adopting more conservative views (e.g., Bobo, 1999;Huber & Form, 1973;Kluegel & Smith, 1986; Marx & Engels, 1846/1970Runciman, 1966;Sears & Funk, 1991;Sidanius & Pratto, 1999;Weeden & Kurzban, 2014). Other approaches have focused more closely on social relationships, with a sizable body of research suggesting that people adopt the political attitudes and beliefs that are normative in the reference groups with which they identify (Berelson, Lazarsfeld, & McPhee, 1954;Merton, 1957;Newcomb, 1943) or common within their families or social networks (Huckfeldt, Johnson, & Sprague, 2004;Jennings & Niemi, 1981; Advances in Political Psychology, Vol. 39, Suppl. 1, 2018 doi: 10.1111 bs_bs_banner Jost, Ledgerwood, & Hardin, 2008;Sears & Levy, 2003). Last but not least, research in political science zeroes in on the role of political parties, arguing that individuals acquire the preferences enunciated by the leaders of the parties they identify with (Campbell, Converse, Miller, & Stokes, 1960;Goren, 2005;Lenz, 2013;Zaller, 1992). Approaches like these share a common thread: They focus on the social or contextua...

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“…More generally, our findings not only demonstrate the hitherto understudied electoral relevance of neighborhood disorder, but also add strength to arguments emphasizing the importance of cultural framing. Previous research has shown that effects of both information provision and local conditions do not have a universal impact on political attitudes and behaviors (Manevska & Achterberg, 2013;Achterberg, 2014;Van Assche et al, 2014;Velez & Lavine, 2017): effects may be large among groups with specific dispositions, but absent among others. Extant research that takes into account the moderating role of dispositions when it comes to the political implications of local conditions has mainly focused on ethnic diversity.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Threats to or violations of this order are considered to be problematic and should thus be prevented or at least punished harshly. Authoritarians thus have a low tolerance for non-conformity (Elchardus & Spruyt, 2012;Velez & Lavine, 2017). Authoritarianism is regarded as a general social-ideological attitude that is of central importance in the socio-cultural political dimension that has increased in salience in the political field in Western countries (Achterberg & Houtman, 2009;Elchardus & Spruyt, 2012;Stubager, 2010).…”

Section: Authoritarianism As a Cultural Framementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This would mean that groups with different attitudinal dispositions react differently to the same neighborhood conditions. Therefore, we test whether the impact of neighborhood disorder on law-and-order voting is stronger among those characterized by a higher level of authoritarianism, that is, a stronger preference for social conformity and a dislike of difference and diversity (Stenner, 2005;Velez & Lavine, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Order please! How cultural framing shapes the impact of neighborhood disorder on law-and-order voting

Noord

Koster

Waal

2018

Political Geography

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Local conditions shape voting behavior. Extant research has primarily scrutinized one specific relationship: the association between the share of ethnic minorities in a local context and voting for right-wing populist or anti-immigration parties. The electoral relevance of neighborhood disorder, another potentially salient local factor, has been unexplored, even though this social problem has received much attention in the field of criminology. We therefore assess whether neighborhood disorder underlies support for law-and-order parties. In so doing, we incorporate insights from the literature on cultural framing and theorize that the electoral relevance of neighborhood disorder is not the same for everyone, because different individuals may have different interpretations of the same local conditions. We thus hypothesize that neighborhood disorder more strongly inspires law-and-order voting among residents with an authoritarian disposition, that is, an aversion to diversity and difference and an inclination toward social conformity. Multilevel logistic regression analyses of nationally representative Dutch data (1678 Dutch natives in 180 neighborhoods) corroborate this hypothesis: while we find no overall effect of neighborhood disorder on law-and-order voting, there is evidence of a strong positive effect among residents with a very authoritarian disposition. We discuss the relevance of these results and provide suggestions for further research.

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Racial Diversity and the Dynamics of Authoritarianism

Cited by 33 publications

References 50 publications

Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions

Who Cares If They Need Help? The Deservingness Heuristic, Humanitarianism, and Welfare Opinions

The Contingent, Contextual Nature of the Relationship Between Needs for Security and Certainty and Political Preferences: Evidence and Implications

Order please! How cultural framing shapes the impact of neighborhood disorder on law-and-order voting

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