Authoritarianism and Polarization in American Politics

“…adaptations include, among others, RWA (e.g., Adorno et al. 1950; Altemeyer 1996; Ekehammar et al. 2004; Feldman 2003; Feldman and Stenner 1997; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Stenner 2005), SDO (e.g., Ekehammar et al. 2004; Sidanius and Pratto 1999; Sidanius, Pratto, and Bobo 1996), Racial…”

“Recentworkonsocial threat suggests that theperception of a threatening environment can activate otherwise latent predispositions against immigrants and other minorities (Feldman and Stenner 1997; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Stenner 2005).”

“Starting in the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, Republicans positioned themselves as the party that would help whites to resist social change and impose order in their environments (Hetherington and Weiler 2009, Carmines and Stimson 1989).”

“…that cultural threat perceptions stem from personality factors, such as self-esteem (Sniderman, Hagendoorn, and Prior 2004) and authoritarianism (Hetherington and Weiler 2009), as well as individuals’ deeply ingrained symbolic orientations, such as religious affiliation (Fetzer 2000) or…”

“75 E.g., Cizmar et al. 2014; c.f., Gerber et al. 2010; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Iyer et al. 2012; Malka et al. 2014; Petrescu and Parkinson 2014; Smith et al. 2011.”

“Common wisdom has it that American society is becoming increasingly polarized (Fiorina, Abrams, and Pope 2005; Brownstein 2007; McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal 2008; Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“…ideology in the United States has also become highly correlated with other attributes, such as partisanship or authoritarian predispositions+ See Hetherington and Weiler 2009, 39; and Levendusky 2009, 3+ I thus do not consider the role of these other attributes separately for the purposes of…”

“…), authoritarians are described as rigid thinkers who perceive the world in black-and-white terms (Adorno et al. 1950 ; Altemeyer 1981 a, 1988 , 1996 ; Duckitt 1989 ; Feldman 2003 ; Feldman and Stenner 1997 ; Hetherington and Weiler 2009 ; Jost et al. 2003 ; Lavine et al. 2005 ; Stenner 2005 ).”

“…the political psychology literature and has been made with regard to Big Five personality traits (Mondak et al. 2010), authoritarian personality (Feldman 2003; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; McCann 2009; Stenner 2005), and of course framing (Chong and Druckman 2007; Nelson, Oxley, and Clawson 1997).”

“Instead, we focus on research that operationalizes authoritarianism without invoking politically conservative content, primarily by using a brief measure of preferred child-rearing values (Federico et al., 2011; Feldman, 2003; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Stenner, 2005).”

“…dominance orientation) because both have been shown to be highly predictive of prejudice (e.g., see McFarland, 1998; Whitley, 1999), and the former has been shown to be directly predictive of economic and cultural threat and support for restrictive immigration policy (Hetherington & Weiler, 2009).”

“Numerous studies have also linked the authoritarian worldview with relatively rigid cognitive dispositions, indicating a general need for certainty, closure, and aversion to complexity (Feldman and Stenner 1997; Jost et al. 2003; Kahan 2013; Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“Consequently, rather than being a stable trait, individuals’ authoritarian tendencies may temporarily increase when threats are psychologically salient [39,55,56,57].”

“…resonate with voters, scholars and pundits alike have noted that cultural and moral concerns now play a more prominent role for many voters (Hunter, 1991) and help to explain polarization between liberals and conservatives on a host of issues (Hetherington & Weiler 2009; Hillygus & Shields, 2008).”

“However, the authors do not situate their analysis within the SIT literature and they operationalize social identity using child-rearing values that are most commonly associated with authoritarianism (see Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“…; for anger, the French terms used were colère, haine, amertume, and ressentiment .20 We measure authoritarianism using the child-rearing values scale (Feldman & Stenner, 1997; see also Federico, Fisher, & Deason, 2011; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Hetherington & Suhay, 2011; Stenner, 2005).”

“According to such public opinion data, individuals from both parties, are likely to express concerns about the inimical effects of immigration on social and policy outcomes (Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Neiman et al. 2006).”

“A review of prior work suggests three deep psychological variables may account for these relationships: authoritarianism (Hetherington and Weiler 2009); basic human values (Schwartz 1992); and the openness dimension of personality (Gerber et al. 2010).”

“These viewpoints begin from the con-tentionthatracialandimmigration-relatedattitudesstem from a common underlying factor, whether it is ethno-centrism (e.g., Kinder and Kam 2009), authoritarianism (Hetherington and Weiler 2009), or social dominance orientation (Newman, Hartman, and Taber 2014).”

“, Leighley, 1995), and women are less likely to vote than men (e.g., Burns, Schlozman, & Verba, 2001). Compared to the previous literature’s findings (listed in Appendix C), these results appear decidedly close to those of Mondak and Halperin (2008) but somewhat contradictory of two studies (Gerber et al.”

“Some scholars recognize the key influence of broad, deeply embedded, longstanding political tendencies, but take their existence for granted rather than seek to explain their nature and origins (e.g., Barker & Tinnick, 2006; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Zaller, 1992).”

“42 Hetherington and Weiler 2009.”

“Both authoritarianism and SDO are highly associated with attitudes toward groups and social and political opinions (e.g., Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Pratto et al. 1994).”

“…evidence for, the reactive-liberals hypothesis, which proposes that conservatives constantly feel under threat and are therefore less reactive to situational threats than are liberals, who become more attitudinally conservative following situational threats (see also Hetherington & Weiler, 2009).”

“…research that analyzes whether the American mass public has also polarized over this same period (see, e.g., Abramowitz & Saunders, 2008; Fiorina, Abrams, & Pope, 2004; Hetherington, 2001; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Layman, Carsey, & Horowitz, 2006; Jacobson, 2007; Levendusky, 2009a, 2009b).”

“Similarly, Hetherington and Weiler (2009) argued that the close relationship between religion and authoritarianism is one factor that has aided in the development of authoritarianism as a partisan divide in the U.S. in recent years.”

“…the dehumanization of ethnic and religious minority groups (Mexicans, Nigerians, Arabs, Muslims, and Blacks; Kteily et al., 2015), authoritarianism (Hetherington & Weiler, 2009), and the internal (value-based) motivation to express bias toward Black people (Forscher et al., 2015).5 We also…”

“Recent studies have shown that child-rearing values are the best indicator of authoritarianism, in particular, whether one considers it especially important for children to learn obedience (Hetherington & Weiler, 2009, pp. 48 – 50; Solt, 2012; Stenner, 2005, pp. 23 – 24).”

“The destruction of the policies this rhetoric was used to refer to—governmental services aimed at strengthening social safety nets and reducing the effects of racial discrimination—quickly became the centerpiece of the Republican Party platform.”

“…set of causal findings on the effect of security threats—not economic threats as we discuss here—activating authoritarian behavior; see, for example, Hetherington and Weiler (2009) and Richey (2012). tions due to relatively short-term periodicity in the business cycle, for example.9 Thus, in…”

“…science literature (Baldassarri & Gelman, 2008; Bartels, 2000; Brownstein, 2007; DiMaggio, Evans, & Bryson, 1996; Fiorina, Abrams, & Pope, 2010; Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Hunter, 1991; McCarty, Poole, & Rosenthal, 2008), but the specific ways in which polarization is realized are not…”

“First, we have not included a discussion of the electorate polarizing Congress (see Abramowitz 2010 and Hetherington and Weiler 2009 for two good pieces of analysis on this subject).”

“…that are used during wartime, and generally in conflictual situations, reflecting the kind of authoritarian thinking that emerges in individuals who are particularly sensitive to environmental pressures (Adorno et al., 1982; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Keen 1991; Montuori 2005; Stenner 2005).”

“92 For example, Feldman 2003; Stenner 2005; Hetherington and Weiler 2009.”

“…voters hold nationalist, populist, and authoritarian attitudes (Ivarsflaten 2008; Whitehead and Perry 2020; Akkerman, Mudde, and Zaslove 2014; Hetherington and Weiler 2009) and radical-right politicians rely on nationalist, populist, and authoritarian frames to mobilize those attitudes at…”

“Greater respect for authority yields ready support for the aggressive use of military force (e.g., Herzon, Kincaid, and Dalton 1978; Kam and Kinder 2007; Barker, Hurwitz, and Nelson 2008; Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“These effects, in turn, are mediated by right-wing orientation [26] and the endorsement of conservative, system-justifying attitudes [47], and they are amplified by threatening societal circumstances [48].”

“This measure is strongly associated with a wide range of attitudes and preferences from racial attitudes to support for democracy to women’s equality to LGBT rights to immigration (see e.g., Hetherington & Weiler, 2009, 2018), as a valid measure of authoritarianism should be.”

“Recent work on the polarization and characteristics of the American voter introduces a concept of potential relevance for understanding attitudes toward immigrants: authoritarianism (Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“Commitments to traditional moral standards and fears about threats to these standards shape both their attitudes about government social provision and their attitudes about acceptable forms of social relations within families and society (see also Hetherington and Weiler 2009).”

“…al. 1968; Mondak 2010; Putnam 2001; Settle et al. 2011; Sinclair 2012; Zuckerman 2005) and polarized (Abramowitz 2010; Abramowitz and Saunders 2008; Bafumi and Shapiro 2009; Haidt and Hetherington 2012; Hetherington and Weiler 2009; Iyengar et al. 2012; Iyengar and Westwood 2015; Mason 2013, 2015).”

“Republicans are more likely to be intolerant of difference, sensitive to normative threats, and resistant to change (Hetherington & Weiler, 2009; Jost, 2017; MacWilliams, 2016).”