Authoritarian attitudes in Russia: Right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in the modern Russian context

Abstract

The study of authoritarianism has a long history in the field of psychology; however, much of this research focuses on Western countries, especially the United States. In effort to better understand authoritarianism cross‐culturally, we explore the current state of authoritarianism in an important cultural context: Russia. Thus, the current paper reports on large‐scale research of right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in the modern Russian context. Six studies (total N = 1,358) included personality traits, basic human values, social beliefs, and intergroup attitudes that allowed us to comprehensively consider authoritarian attitudes in Russia. The results showed that personological profile and pattern of reaction to threat among Russian authoritarians is similar to Western authoritarians. However, economic views inherited from Soviet ideology make Russians differ in their view of economic conservatism from that supported by Western authoritarians. These data provide insight into the psychology of authoritarianism as well as explore novel aspects of Russian culture.

Psychological and cultural effects of different kinds of danger. An exploration based on survey data from 79 countries

“…The term RWA is in fact misleading because the characteristic symptoms of RWA are found in persons who follow the ideologies of dominant leaders, whether these are left wing or right wing. In fact, characteristics analogous to RWA have been documented in persons with left wing opinions in communist and excommunist countries and even in the USA (Conway, 2021;Costello et al, 2022;De Regt, Mortelmans, & Smits, 2011;Grigoryev, Batkhina, Conway, & Zubrod, 2022). The situation is far from symmetrical, though.…”

Social Worldviews Predict the General Factor of Paranormal and Generic Conspiracist Beliefs

“…It is noteworthy that the mean value on this scale was the highest of the participants. Apparently, this can be attributed to a rather low level of institutional trust, which is associated with this perceived malevolence on the part of the authorities (see Grigoryev et al, 2022). That is, conspiracy theories about government can be confounded with a general source of skepticism in relation to authorities.…”

“…We used secondary data that had previously been collected online in 2018 (Grigoryev et al, 2022). Participation was voluntary, no remuneration was provided.…”

“…The questionnaire containing measures and questions about socio-demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, religion, etc.) was presented to participants in Russian (Grigoryev et al, 2022).…”

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

“…On the one hand, there is a great deal of cross-cultural evidence from nations with authoritarian left-wing regimes – such as the former Soviet Union. Not only do leaders in those liberal regimes exhibit authoritarian behaviors, but authoritarian measurements in those populaces tend to correlate with support for the left-wing authoritarian government (e.g., McFarland et al, 1992 , 1993 , 1996 ; Pentony et al, 2000 ; Grigoryev et al, 2022 ). However, as evidence for left-wing authoritarianism, this work provides a proverbial mixed bag because generally the authoritarian scales (that are correlated with left-wing ideological beliefs) contain right-wing authoritarianism traits.…”