Why are consistently-handed individuals more authoritarian? The role of need for cognitive closure

Lyle, Keith B.; Grillo, Michael C.

doi:10.1080/1357650x.2020.1765791

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Among inconsistent-handers, support was unaffected by presentation of the report, regardless of the alleged terrorist's stated religious affiliation. Critically, we also found, as in prior research, 79 that consistent-handers scored higher on authoritarian submission than did inconsistent-handers. This makes plausible the assertion that differential levels of authoritarian submission were responsible for consistentand inconsistent-handers' differential response to the news report prime.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

“…Inconsistent-handers' support, in contrast, was not influenced by the prime, suggesting more rational information processing. Note that, in the present study and many others utilizing the same handedness classification scheme, 80,81,82 inconsistent-handedness was a minority phenomenon. If consistent-handedness is normative, then it may be appropriate to assume not merely that some people's attitudes about the GC are susceptible to irrational influences, but that most people's attitudes are (albeit not all).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

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Handedness and the neurocognitive foundations of public attitudes about international laws and norms

Grillo

Pupcenoks²,

Lyle

2018

Polit. life sci.

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Whether Geneva Conventions (GC) rights should apply to terrorists is a contentious question that has received little attention in public opinion research. Both personality and contextual factors may be important. We queried participants' support for applying the GC to alleged terrorists, but first we measured participants' authoritarianism and presented them with a scenario concerning an alleged terrorist. We manipulated whether (1) the scenario contained examples of GC rights and (2) the alleged terrorist's religious affiliation was Muslim or non-Muslim. Support for applying the GC to alleged terrorists was high and unaffected by providing examples of GC provisions, but it was negatively related to authoritarianism. Support was reduced by priming with a Muslim terrorist, but only among participants exhibiting a behavioral marker for limited interhemispheric interaction - consistent-handedness. Consistent-handers in our sample expressed greater authoritarianism, suggesting that limited interhemispheric interaction promotes greater authoritarianism, which decreases support for applying the GC to alleged terrorists.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 89%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 64%

Handedness and the neurocognitive foundations of public attitudes about international laws and norms

Grillo

Pupcenoks²,

Lyle

2018

Polit. life sci.

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“…Consistency of handedness has been linked to a number of variables related to gullibility, such as magical ideation and paranormal beliefs (Barnett and Corballis, 2002;Prichard and Christman, 2016). Consistency of handedness has also been linked to Authoritarianism (Christman, 2014;Lyle and Grillo, 2020). Interestingly, it is difficult to predict in which direction handedness might be related to disregard for COVID-19 science.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Beliefs, Gender and COVID-19: Links Between Individual Differences and Concern About COVID-19, Mask Wearing Behaviors, and the Tendency to Blame China for the Virus

Prichard

Christman

2020

Front. Psychol.

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The present study investigated variables potentially associated with a lack of concern about COVID-19 and belief in the conspiracy theory that China is responsible for the virus. In particular, the study looked at Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Beliefs, gender, and consistency of handedness as predictors of nine Likert-type items gauging attitudes, behavior, and beliefs regarding the virus. Initial analyses showed that Authoritarianism predicted less concern about the impact of the virus on health, less mask wearing, and a stronger belief in China’s responsibility for the illness. Conspiracy Beliefs were associated with a stronger belief in China’s responsibility. Women expressed greater degrees of concern about their own and others’ health and about the financial wellbeing of others. In order to reduce the number of dimensions, and thus the number of tests that could yield a type one error, the nine items were then submitted to a principal components analysis which yielded a “Concern about COVID” factor and a “Blame for China” factor. Authoritarianism is generally associated with less concern about the virus. In addition, men showed less concern about the virus overall than women. Both Authoritarianism and Conspiracy Beliefs accounted for unique variance in blame on China for the virus.

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“…Lastly, an association between political orientation and handedness was not observed. This may be understood, in part, with reference to findings by Prichard and Christman (2016) and Lyle and Grillo (2020) showing that consistency of handedness, rather than handedness per se, is a more sensitive measure of attitudinal variables.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…This interest is reflected in studies of handedness and conservatism-liberalism (Bernabel & Oliveira, 2017), political cognition (Masters, 1989), political orientation (McCann, 2019), and support for selected political candidates (Prichard & Christman, 2020). Moreover, certain features of handedness, such as consistency of hand preference, have been linked to authoritarianism and other psychological variables (Lyle & Grillo, 2020; Prichard & Christman, 2020). Sex and gender have also been significant variables in political science research, evident in studies of political participation (Coffé & Blozendahl, 2010), publication patterns (Teele & Thelen, 2017), and feminism and reproductive strategies (Liesen, 1995).…”

Section: Handedness and Political Science Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Senatorial signatures

Segal

Niculae

2021

Polit. life sci.

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A greater frequency of left-handedness among males than females has been observed in general populations. Past studies have explained this difference with reference to males’ greater susceptibility to adverse birth events, while more recent studies have identified other contributing factors. On January 16, 2020, U.S. senators signed an oath to act impartially during the president’s impeachment trial. This televised event allowed direct comparison of the proportion of right-handedness and left-handedness in a professionally accomplished sample of males and females. As expected, no sex difference in the proportion of left-handed senators was found, although the small sample size offered low statistical power. Replicating this finding with a larger sample would support the view that left-handedness among select groups of males is linked to genetic factors.

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Why are consistently-handed individuals more authoritarian? The role of need for cognitive closure

Cited by 12 publications

References 63 publications

Handedness and the neurocognitive foundations of public attitudes about international laws and norms

Handedness and the neurocognitive foundations of public attitudes about international laws and norms

Authoritarianism, Conspiracy Beliefs, Gender and COVID-19: Links Between Individual Differences and Concern About COVID-19, Mask Wearing Behaviors, and the Tendency to Blame China for the Virus

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