Economic Decline, Social Identity, and Authoritarian Values in the United States

Abstract

Why does the contemporary backlash against globalization in the United States have such a substantial authoritarian character? We argue that sustained economic decline has a negative effect on the social identity of historically dominant groups. These losses lead individuals to be more likely to want to enforce social norm conformity—that is, adopt more authoritarian values—as a way to preserve social status and this effect is greater the larger the size of other groups in the population. Central to our account is the expectation of an interactive effect of local economic and demographic conditions in forging value responses to economic decline. The article evaluates this argument using an original 2017 representative survey in the United States. We find that individuals living in relatively diverse regions facing more intense competition from Chinese imports have more authoritarian values. We further find that the greater effect of globalization-induced labor market decline in more diverse areas is also evident for vote choice in the 2016 Presidential election.

Economic shocks and clinging

“…6 6 This trend has been shown in the US (Autor et al., 2020; Ballard‐Rosa et al., forthcoming; Che et al., 2021), UK (Colantone & Stanig, 2018a), Germany, (Dippel et al., 2016), France (Malgouyres, 2017) and, more generally, Western Europe (Colantone & Stanig, 2018b; Steiner & Harms, 2021). …”

Automation, Digitalization, and Artificial Intelligence in the Workplace: Implications for Political Behavior

“…If the workplace is no longer a reliable source of social status, voters who suffer from relative status decline may seek redress by adopting other identities. One important mechanism is that members of historically dominant groups develop authoritarian attitudes as a protection from social regression and identity loss stemming from long-run economic change, and they turn against groups perceived as inferior in order to preserve status (Gidron & Hall 2017, Ballard-Rosa et al 2022. A second general mechanism is that when individuals experience a relative economic decline, their occupation-related identities become less valuable, and they become more likely to choose identities that can provide higher prestige and self-esteem, such as national identities (Shayo 2009).…”

Contextualized impacts of an infodemic on vaccine hesitancy: The moderating role of socioeconomic and cultural factors

“…People who score high in authoritarian mentality ( World Values Survey Association, 2012 ) have stronger faith in the intentions of the authorities. Authoritarian mentality is “a preference for order and homogeneity and a belief that these outcomes should be achieved by force if necessary” ( Ballard-Rosa et al., 2018 , p. 1). Classic literature on authoritarianism generally construes such mentality as a multi-dimensional construct in which deterrence to dissenters and reliance on authority and a strong political leader emerge as key characteristics ( Adorno et al., 1950 ; Altemeyer, 1981 ; Todosijević & Enyedi, 2008 ).…”