A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right

Forscher, Patrick S.; Kteily, Nour S.

doi:10.1177/1745691619868208

Cited by 110Populism, Right-Wing MovementsSocial and Intergroup PsychologyTerrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence

A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right

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Forscher, Patrick S., Kteily, Nour S.·2020·Perspectives on Psychological Science

DOI 10.1177/1745691619868208PMC PMC6980479

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Abstract

The 2016 U.S. presidential election coincided with the rise of the "alternative right," or alt-right . Alt-right associates have wielded considerable influence on the current administration and on social discourse, but the movement's loose organizational structure has led to disparate portrayals of its members' psychology and made it difficult to decipher its aims and reach. To systematically explore the alt-right's psychology, we recruited two U.S. samples: An exploratory sample through Amazon's Mechanical Turk ( N = 827, alt-right n = 447) and a larger, nationally representative sample through the National Opinion Research Center's Amerispeak panel ( N = 1,283, alt-right n = 71-160, depending on the definition). We estimate that 6% of the U.S. population and 10% of Trump voters identify as alt-right. Alt-right adherents reported a psychological profile more reflective of the desire for group-based dominance than economic anxiety. Although both the alt-right and non-alt-right Trump voters differed substantially from non-alt-right, non-Trump voters, the alt-right and Trump voters were quite similar, differing mainly in the alt-right's especially high enthusiasm for Trump, suspicion of mainstream media, trust in alternative media, and desire for collective action on behalf of Whites. We argue for renewed consideration of overt forms of bias in contemporary intergroup research.

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Conservative-rightist ideology is associated with valuing tradition, social order and maintenance of the status quo, whereas liberal-leftist ideology is associated with a push for egalitarian social change.
“Whereas conservative-rightist ideology is associated with valuing tradition, social order and maintenance of the status quo, liberal-leftist ideology is associated with a push for egalitarian social change.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [167]
Decades of research in political psychology demonstrate that those who embrace more conservative-rightist attitudes, identities and leaders are more authoritarian and social-dominance-oriented than those who embrace more liberal-leftist attitudes, identities and leaders.
“In addition, decades of research in political psychology demonstrate that those who embrace more conservative-rightist attitudes, identities and leaders are more authoritarian and social-dominance-oriented (that is, supportive of group-based hierarchies) than those who embrace more liberal-leftist attitudes, identities and leaders107,149,163–169.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [167]

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Authors: Forscher, P. S., & Kteily, N. S.
Affiliations: Laboratoire Inter-universitaire de Psychologie: Personnalité, Cognition, Changement Social (FR)
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author: Forscher, Patrick S.
ORCID: Forscher, Patrick S.
Kteily, Nour S.
Venue: Perspectives on Psychological Science
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2019-11-20
Volume: 15
Issue: 1
Pages: 90-116
ISSN: 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
1745-6924
DOI: 10.1177/1745691619868208
PMC: PMC6980479
OpenAlex: W2778100822
Cited by: 110
References: 53
Citations by year: 2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 11 · 2023: 15 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 5 · 2016: 1
FWCI: 59.09
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: green
doi.org
Licence: cc-by
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders: National Institutes of Health (5R01-GM111002-02)
Topics: Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Populism, Right-Wing Movements
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
Keywords: alt-right, political psychology, Trump voters, 2016 US presidential election, economic anxiety, alternative media, collective action, white identity, intergroup bias
MeSH terms: Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Attitude, Female, Group Processes, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Politics, Social Dominance, United States, Young Adult, Racism

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A Psychological Profile of the Alt-Right

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