TY - UNPB

T1 - Dominance-driven political orientations predict political violence in non-WEIRD and WEIRD samples

AU - Bartusevicius, Henrikas

AU - van Leeuwen, Florian

AU - Petersen, Michael Bang

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Given the costs of political violence, scholars have long sought to identify its causes. We examined individual differences related to participation in political violence, emphasizing the central role of political orientations. We hypothesized, specifically, that individuals with dominance-driven autocratic political orientations are particularly prone to political violence. Multilevel analysis of a large sample, spanning 34 African countries (N = 51,587), indicated that autocracy-oriented individuals, compared to democracy-oriented individuals, are four times more likely to participate in political violence. As a predictor of violence (indexed with attitudinal, action intent, and behavioral measures), autocratic orientation outperformed other variables highlighted in existing research, including socioeconomic status and perceived injustice. Additional analyses of original samples from South Africa (N = 2,170) and Denmark (N = 1,012) indicated that the association between autocratic orientation and political violence reflects individual differences in dominance orientations, and that the findings generalize to societies extensively socialized to democratic values.

AB - Given the costs of political violence, scholars have long sought to identify its causes. We examined individual differences related to participation in political violence, emphasizing the central role of political orientations. We hypothesized, specifically, that individuals with dominance-driven autocratic political orientations are particularly prone to political violence. Multilevel analysis of a large sample, spanning 34 African countries (N = 51,587), indicated that autocracy-oriented individuals, compared to democracy-oriented individuals, are four times more likely to participate in political violence. As a predictor of violence (indexed with attitudinal, action intent, and behavioral measures), autocratic orientation outperformed other variables highlighted in existing research, including socioeconomic status and perceived injustice. Additional analyses of original samples from South Africa (N = 2,170) and Denmark (N = 1,012) indicated that the association between autocratic orientation and political violence reflects individual differences in dominance orientations, and that the findings generalize to societies extensively socialized to democratic values.

U2 - 10.31234/osf.io/dvq83

DO - 10.31234/osf.io/dvq83

M3 - Working paper

BT - Dominance-driven political orientations predict political violence in non-WEIRD and WEIRD samples

PB - PsyArXiv

ER -