Authoritarianism and perceived threat from the novel coronavirus

Abstract

The threat of COVID‐19 has triggered nationalism, prejudice and support for anti‐democratic political systems around the world. Authoritarianism—an individual's orientation toward social conformity and individual autonomy—shapes interpretations of and responses to threat. We drew on theories of authoritarianism and threat to propose that authoritarians and libertarians will interpret the threat of COVID‐19 in distinct ways. An online survey of 368 Scottish nationals was administered via the Prolific platform. Original measures of realistic and symbolic threat from COVID‐19 were included, along with an established measure of the authoritarian predisposition. Linear regression analyses showed that COVID‐19 was perceived primarily as a realistic threat to physical and material well‐being; however, authoritarians were more likely than others to interpret the novel coronavirus as a symbolic threat to their prevailing values. Our findings contribute to understanding the psychology of pandemic‐era attitudes and behaviours and provide insight into possible political consequences of the coronavirus threat. The results also demonstrate how considering authoritarians' subjective construal of threats can resolve questions in the authoritarianism and threat literature and advance theory.

Authoritarian Opposition? Authoritarian Disposition and Resistance to Public Health Mitigation Strategies During COVID-19

“…A second limitation in understanding the link between authoritarianism and anti-mitigation efforts is the lack of data that measure both realistic and symbolic threats along with beliefs and about mitigation efforts. Deason and Dunn (2022) show that authoritarians viewed symbolic threats such as mitigation efforts as more threatening than the health threats from COVID-19 providing evidence for our assumed mechanism that links authoritarianism and mitigation behaviors. And the relationship between authoritarianism and mitigation behaviors we find across data sets is consistent with such a finding although we cannot rule out alternative casual linkages.…”

“…Disaggregating the nature of the threats posed by the pandemic provides additional theoretical insights into how different groups—including authoritarians—responded to it. While the material costs of restrictions (as physical consequences of infection) represent “realistic” threats, the social disruption they cause and their threat to group cohesion represent “symbolic” threats (Deason and Dunn, 2022; Kachanoff et al, 2021). Due to its direct negative impact on physical health, the SARS-CoV-2 pathogens represented a realistic threat.…”

“…Individuals that perceived COVID-19 as more of a symbolic threat reported greater opposition to restrictive pandemic mitigation policies than individuals that viewed it as a realistic threat (Kachanoff et al, 2021). Moreover, while authoritarians and non-authoritarians were equally likely to see COVID-19 as a material threat (to their health or well-being), authoritarians were significantly more likely to perceive the pandemic as a symbolic threat because its potential repercussions for group identity, traditions, and cohesion (Deason and Dunn, 2022). 3…”

Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education

“…In fact, an interplay of policy making, political processes and subjective threat perception is quite conceivable ( cf. Deason and Dunn, 2022 ) or that threat may only moderate the effects of authoritarianism on other constructs like outgroup rejection ( Hartman et al, 2021 ) Cross-cultural and international comparisons as well as longitudinal studies could help shed light on this dynamic to understand how politics can promote solidarity in times of crises instead of fostering an authoritarian dynamic.…”

“…A recent study by Golec de Zavala et al (2020) reported an increase in authoritarianism and related attitudes in Poland using latent growth curve modeling on a representative, longitudinal data set. Moreover, Hartman et al, 2021 could show that anxieties about the pandemic increased the effect of authoritarianism on anti-immigrant attitudes in the United Kingdom and Ireland, and Deason and Dunn (2022) demonstrated that authoritarians were more likely to interpret the COVID-19 pandemic as a symbolic threat to their prevailing values than libertarians did.…”