AUTHORITARIANISM AND COGNITIVE POLITICAL INVOLVEMENT
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2017.4.521-540Keywords:
authoritarianism, political knowledge, political interest, SerbiaAbstract
This study analyses the linkage between authoritarianism and three indicators that describe one’s general cognitive orientation towards the world of politics: political knowledge, general interest in politics, and interest in the election campaign. Individuals high in authoritarianism are hypothesized to be less politically competent and less interested in politics, due to their resistance to adopting new information and to changing the adopted beliefs. This hypothesis is based on the classical description of the authoritarian personality, but it has not been adequately empirically verified yet. The data are taken from a post-election public opinion survey conducted in 2012 after the presidential and parliamentary elections, on a random sample of voting age citizens of Serbia (N = 1568). The results show that authoritarianism and the level of political knowledge are significantly and negatively correlated, even after controlling for the basic socio-demographic variables. The intensity of political interest is not significantly correlated with authoritarianism. Additional comparison of the misinformed and uninformed groups (those who provided incorrect answers, and those who answered “don't know”, respectively) did not support the view that authoritarian persons are more inclined to erroneously guess an answer than to simply say “don’t know”. The study concludes that the association between political knowledge and authoritarianism is based on deeper psychological roots, while the (lack of) association with political interest is likely to be context-dependent.
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References
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Allport, G. (1954). The nature of prejudice. New York: Basic Books.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1988). Enemies of freedom: Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1996). The authoritarian spectre. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Altemeyer, R. A. (2007). The Authoritarians. Retrieved from http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey
Brown, R. (1965). Social psychology. New York: Free Press.
Chirumbolo, A. (2001). The relationship between need for cognitive closure and political orientation: The mediating role of authoritarianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 603–610. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00062-9
Cohrs, C., & Moschner, B. (2002). Antiwar knowledge and generalized political attitudes as determinants of attitude toward the Kosovo war. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 82, 139−155. doi: 10.1207/S15327949PAC0802_03
Dalton, R. J. (1984). Cognitive mobilization and partisan dealignment in advanced industrial democracies. The Journal of Politics, 46, 264−284. doi:10.2307/2130444
Dalton, R. J. (2007). Partisan mobilization, cognitive mobilization and the changing American electorate. Electoral Studies, 26, 274−286. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2006.04.009
Dalton, R. J., & Wattenberg, M. P. (2000). Parties without partisans: Political
change in advanced industrial democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dekker, H. (1996). Democratic citizen competence – Political-psychological and political socialization research perspectives. In R. Farnen, F. Dekker, R. Meyenberg, & D. German (Eds.), Democracy, socialization, and conflicting loyalties in East and West: Cross-national and comparative perspectives (pp. 386−404). London: Macmillan Press.
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1991). Stability and change in the U.S. public's knowledge of politics. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 583−612. doi:10.1086/269283
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1993). Measuring political knowledge: Putting first things first. American Journal of Political Science, 37, 1179−1206. doi:10.2307/2111549
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters? New Haven: Yale University Press.
Doty, R. M., Peterson, B. E., & Winter, D. G. (1991). Threat and authoritarianism in the United States, 1978–1987. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 629–640. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.61.4.629
Doty, R. M., Winter, D., Peterson, B. E., & Kemmelmeier, M. (1997). Authoritarianism and American students’ attitudes about the Gulf War, 1990-1996. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1133−1143. doi:10.1177/01461672972311002
Hinze, T., Doster, J., & Joe, V. C. (1997). The relationship of conservatism and cognitive-complexity. Personality and Individual Differences, 222, 297−298.
Inglehart, R. (1979). Political action: The impact of values, cognitive level and social background. In S. Barns & M. Kaase (Eds.), Political action: Mass participation in five western democracies (pp. 343−380). Beverly Hills: Sage.
Jost, J. T., & Amodio, D. M. (2012). Political ideology as motivated social cognition: Behavioural and neuroscientific evidence. Motivation and Emotion, 36, 55−64. doi:10.1007/s11031-011-9260-7
Jost, J., Kruglanski, A., Glaser, J., & Sulloway, F. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339−375. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339
Klingemann, H. D. (1979). The background of ideological conceptualization. In S. Barns & M. Kaase (Eds.), Political action: Mass participation in five western democracies (pp. 255−277). Beverly Hills: Sage.
Krampen, G. (2000). Transition of adolescent political action orientations to voting behaviour in early adulthood in view of a social-cognitive action theory model of personality. Political Psychology, 21, 277−293. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00188
Kuklinski, J., Quirk, P., Jerit, J., Schweider, D., & Rich, R. (2000). Misinformation and the currency of democratic citizenship. Journal of Politics, 62, 790−816. doi:10.1111/0022-3816.00033
Kuzmanović, B. (2010). Autoritarnost – vapaj za jakim i pouzdanim vođama i disciplinom [Authorrtiarianism – A cry for strong and reliable leaders.]. In S. Mihailović (Ed.), Kako građani Srbije vide tranziciju [How citizens of Serbia see the transition] (pp. 87−104). Beograd: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Lipset, S. (1959). Democracy and working-class authoritarianism. American Sociological Review, 24, 482−501.
McCrae, R. R. (1996). Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin, 1203, 323−337.
McFarland, S. (2010). Authoritarianism, social dominance, and other roots of generalized prejudice. Political Psychology, 31, 453−477. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00765.x
Meloen, J. D. (1993). The F scale as a predictor of fascism: An overview of 40 years of authoritarianism research. In W. F. Stone, G. Lederer, & R. Christie (Eds.), Strength and weakness: The authoritarian personality today (pp. 47−69). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Meloen, J. (1996). Authoritarianism, democracy and education – A preliminary empirical 70-nation global indicators study. In R. Farnen, F. Dekker, R. Meyenberg, & D. German (Eds.), Democracy, socialization, and conflicting loyalties in East and West: Cross-national and comparative perspectives (pp. 20−39). London: Macmillan Press.
Mondak, J. (1999). Reconsidering the measurement of political knowledge. Political Analysis, 8, 57−82. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.pan.a029805
Mondak, J. (2001). Developing valid knowledge scales. American Journal of Political Science, 45, 224−238.
Mondak, J., & Anderson, M. R. (2004). The knowledge gap: A reexamination of gender-based differences in political knowledge. Journal of Politics, 66, 492−512. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2004.00161.x
Pavlović, Z. (2012). Predictors and correlates of youth political knowledge in Serbia. Psihologija, 45, 433−449. doi:10.2298/PSI1204433P
Pavlović, Z. (2013a). Prediktori izborne apstinencije mladih u Srbiji [Predictors of youth electoral absenteeism in Serbia] . Primenjena psihologija, 6, 5−21.
Pavlović, Z. (2013b). Political culture v. rational choice: Support for democracy in Serbia. In C. Florela Voinea, B. Todosijević, & G. Boella (Eds.), Eastern European Political Cultures. Modeling Studies (pp. 137−154). Bucuresti: Ars Docendi.
Pavlović, Z. (2014). Intrinsic or instrumental support for democracy in a post-communist society. The case of Serbia. European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities, 3, 31−42.
Pantić, D., & Pavlović, Z. (2009). Political culture of voters in Serbia. Belgrade: Institute of Social Sciences.
Peterson, B. E., Doty, R. M., & Winter, D. G. (1993). Authoritarianism and attitudes toward contemporary social issues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 174–184. doi:10.1177/0146167293192006
Peterson, B. E., Smirles, K. A., & Wentworth, P. A. (1997). Generativity and authoritarianism implications for personality, political involvement, and parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1202–1216. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1202
Peterson, B., Duncan, L., & Pang, J. (2002). Authoritarianism and political impoverishment: Deficit in knowledge and civic disinterest. Political Psychology, 23, 37−112. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00272
Roets, A., & Van Hiel, A. (2006). Need for closure relations with authoritarianism, conservative beliefs and racism: The impact of urgency and permanence tendencies. Psychologica Belgica, 463, 235−252. doi:10.5334/pb-46-3-235
Rokeach, M. (1960). The open and closed mind. New York: Basic Books.
Talhelm. T., Haidt, J., Oishi, S., Zhang, X., Miao, F., & Chen, S. (2015). Liberals think more analytically more "WEIRD" than conservatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 250−267. doi:10.1177/0146167214563672
Tetlock, P. E. (1983). Cognitive style and political ideology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 521, 118−128.
Todosijević, B. (2006). Politics in Serbia 1990−2002: A cleavage of world views. Psihologija, 39, 121−146.
Todosijević, B. (2013). Socijalni, psihološki i ideološki koreni nacionalističkih stavova u Srbiji. Psihologija, 46, 279−297. doi:10.2298/PSI130411005T
Todosijević, B., Pavlović, Z., & Komar, O. (2015). Obrazovanje, ideologija i politika: Značaj razlika u nivou obrazovanja za političke podele u Srbiji i Crnoj Gori [Education, ideology and politics: The importance of the differences in educational levels for the political cleavages in Serbian and Montenegro]. Srpska politička misao, Posebno izdanje, 125−152.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2012). International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 2011. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/isced-2011-en.pdf
Allport, G. (1954). The nature of prejudice. New York: Basic Books.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1981). Right-wing authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Manitoba: University of Manitoba Press.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1988). Enemies of freedom: Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Altemeyer, R. A. (1996). The authoritarian spectre. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Altemeyer, R. A. (2007). The Authoritarians. Retrieved from http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey
Brown, R. (1965). Social psychology. New York: Free Press.
Chirumbolo, A. (2001). The relationship between need for cognitive closure and political orientation: The mediating role of authoritarianism. Personality and Individual Differences, 32, 603–610. doi:10.1016/S0191-8869(01)00062-9
Cohrs, C., & Moschner, B. (2002). Antiwar knowledge and generalized political attitudes as determinants of attitude toward the Kosovo war. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 82, 139−155. doi: 10.1207/S15327949PAC0802_03
Dalton, R. J. (1984). Cognitive mobilization and partisan dealignment in advanced industrial democracies. The Journal of Politics, 46, 264−284. doi:10.2307/2130444
Dalton, R. J. (2007). Partisan mobilization, cognitive mobilization and the changing American electorate. Electoral Studies, 26, 274−286. doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2006.04.009
Dalton, R. J., & Wattenberg, M. P. (2000). Parties without partisans: Political
change in advanced industrial democracies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dekker, H. (1996). Democratic citizen competence – Political-psychological and political socialization research perspectives. In R. Farnen, F. Dekker, R. Meyenberg, & D. German (Eds.), Democracy, socialization, and conflicting loyalties in East and West: Cross-national and comparative perspectives (pp. 386−404). London: Macmillan Press.
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1991). Stability and change in the U.S. public's knowledge of politics. Public Opinion Quarterly, 55, 583−612. doi:10.1086/269283
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1993). Measuring political knowledge: Putting first things first. American Journal of Political Science, 37, 1179−1206. doi:10.2307/2111549
Delli Carpini, M., & Keeter, S. (1996). What Americans know about politics and why it matters? New Haven: Yale University Press.
Doty, R. M., Peterson, B. E., & Winter, D. G. (1991). Threat and authoritarianism in the United States, 1978–1987. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 629–640. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.61.4.629
Doty, R. M., Winter, D., Peterson, B. E., & Kemmelmeier, M. (1997). Authoritarianism and American students’ attitudes about the Gulf War, 1990-1996. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 1133−1143. doi:10.1177/01461672972311002
Hinze, T., Doster, J., & Joe, V. C. (1997). The relationship of conservatism and cognitive-complexity. Personality and Individual Differences, 222, 297−298.
Inglehart, R. (1979). Political action: The impact of values, cognitive level and social background. In S. Barns & M. Kaase (Eds.), Political action: Mass participation in five western democracies (pp. 343−380). Beverly Hills: Sage.
Jost, J. T., & Amodio, D. M. (2012). Political ideology as motivated social cognition: Behavioural and neuroscientific evidence. Motivation and Emotion, 36, 55−64. doi:10.1007/s11031-011-9260-7
Jost, J., Kruglanski, A., Glaser, J., & Sulloway, F. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 339−375. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339
Klingemann, H. D. (1979). The background of ideological conceptualization. In S. Barns & M. Kaase (Eds.), Political action: Mass participation in five western democracies (pp. 255−277). Beverly Hills: Sage.
Krampen, G. (2000). Transition of adolescent political action orientations to voting behaviour in early adulthood in view of a social-cognitive action theory model of personality. Political Psychology, 21, 277−293. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00188
Kuklinski, J., Quirk, P., Jerit, J., Schweider, D., & Rich, R. (2000). Misinformation and the currency of democratic citizenship. Journal of Politics, 62, 790−816. doi:10.1111/0022-3816.00033
Kuzmanović, B. (2010). Autoritarnost – vapaj za jakim i pouzdanim vođama i disciplinom [Authorrtiarianism – A cry for strong and reliable leaders.]. In S. Mihailović (Ed.), Kako građani Srbije vide tranziciju [How citizens of Serbia see the transition] (pp. 87−104). Beograd: Friedrich Ebert Stiftung.
Lipset, S. (1959). Democracy and working-class authoritarianism. American Sociological Review, 24, 482−501.
McCrae, R. R. (1996). Social consequences of experiential openness. Psychological Bulletin, 1203, 323−337.
McFarland, S. (2010). Authoritarianism, social dominance, and other roots of generalized prejudice. Political Psychology, 31, 453−477. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9221.2010.00765.x
Meloen, J. D. (1993). The F scale as a predictor of fascism: An overview of 40 years of authoritarianism research. In W. F. Stone, G. Lederer, & R. Christie (Eds.), Strength and weakness: The authoritarian personality today (pp. 47−69). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Meloen, J. (1996). Authoritarianism, democracy and education – A preliminary empirical 70-nation global indicators study. In R. Farnen, F. Dekker, R. Meyenberg, & D. German (Eds.), Democracy, socialization, and conflicting loyalties in East and West: Cross-national and comparative perspectives (pp. 20−39). London: Macmillan Press.
Mondak, J. (1999). Reconsidering the measurement of political knowledge. Political Analysis, 8, 57−82. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.pan.a029805
Mondak, J. (2001). Developing valid knowledge scales. American Journal of Political Science, 45, 224−238.
Mondak, J., & Anderson, M. R. (2004). The knowledge gap: A reexamination of gender-based differences in political knowledge. Journal of Politics, 66, 492−512. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2508.2004.00161.x
Pavlović, Z. (2012). Predictors and correlates of youth political knowledge in Serbia. Psihologija, 45, 433−449. doi:10.2298/PSI1204433P
Pavlović, Z. (2013a). Prediktori izborne apstinencije mladih u Srbiji [Predictors of youth electoral absenteeism in Serbia] . Primenjena psihologija, 6, 5−21.
Pavlović, Z. (2013b). Political culture v. rational choice: Support for democracy in Serbia. In C. Florela Voinea, B. Todosijević, & G. Boella (Eds.), Eastern European Political Cultures. Modeling Studies (pp. 137−154). Bucuresti: Ars Docendi.
Pavlović, Z. (2014). Intrinsic or instrumental support for democracy in a post-communist society. The case of Serbia. European Quarterly of Political Attitudes and Mentalities, 3, 31−42.
Pantić, D., & Pavlović, Z. (2009). Political culture of voters in Serbia. Belgrade: Institute of Social Sciences.
Peterson, B. E., Doty, R. M., & Winter, D. G. (1993). Authoritarianism and attitudes toward contemporary social issues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 174–184. doi:10.1177/0146167293192006
Peterson, B. E., Smirles, K. A., & Wentworth, P. A. (1997). Generativity and authoritarianism implications for personality, political involvement, and parenting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 1202–1216. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.72.5.1202
Peterson, B., Duncan, L., & Pang, J. (2002). Authoritarianism and political impoverishment: Deficit in knowledge and civic disinterest. Political Psychology, 23, 37−112. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00272
Roets, A., & Van Hiel, A. (2006). Need for closure relations with authoritarianism, conservative beliefs and racism: The impact of urgency and permanence tendencies. Psychologica Belgica, 463, 235−252. doi:10.5334/pb-46-3-235
Rokeach, M. (1960). The open and closed mind. New York: Basic Books.
Talhelm. T., Haidt, J., Oishi, S., Zhang, X., Miao, F., & Chen, S. (2015). Liberals think more analytically more "WEIRD" than conservatives. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41, 250−267. doi:10.1177/0146167214563672
Tetlock, P. E. (1983). Cognitive style and political ideology. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 521, 118−128.
Todosijević, B. (2006). Politics in Serbia 1990−2002: A cleavage of world views. Psihologija, 39, 121−146.
Todosijević, B. (2013). Socijalni, psihološki i ideološki koreni nacionalističkih stavova u Srbiji. Psihologija, 46, 279−297. doi:10.2298/PSI130411005T
Todosijević, B., Pavlović, Z., & Komar, O. (2015). Obrazovanje, ideologija i politika: Značaj razlika u nivou obrazovanja za političke podele u Srbiji i Crnoj Gori [Education, ideology and politics: The importance of the differences in educational levels for the political cleavages in Serbian and Montenegro]. Srpska politička misao, Posebno izdanje, 125−152.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2012). International Standard Classification of Education ISCED 2011. Retrieved from http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Documents/isced-2011-en.pdf
