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The COVID-19 Pandemic, Authoritarianism, and Rejection of Sexual Dissenters in Poland

Authors:
Agnieszka Golec de Zavala at Goldsmiths, University of London
Agnieszka Golec de Zavala
Kinga Bierwiaczonek at Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID)
Kinga Bierwiaczonek
Tomasz Baran at University of Warsaw
Tomasz Baran
Oliver Keenan at University of East London
Oliver Keenan
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Abstract

In Poland, both, gender hierarchy restricting women’s sexuality and heteronormativity are rooted in traditional “family values” supported by the teachings of the Polish Catholic Church and attached to Polish national identity. Dissenters to traditional norms regulating gender and sexual relations are rejected as a threat to social order and national unity. Latent growth curve modeling performed on data from a 3-wave longitudinal study indicated linear, interrelated increases in authoritarianism; a desire for national cohesion; and rejection of sexual dissenters in the nationally representative sample of Polish participants (N = 889) as the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic unfolded in Poland. Data were collected before and during the outbreak of the pandemic allowing us to link the changes in social attitudes to this naturally occurring threat. Cross-lagged panel analysis indicated that authoritarianism predicted desire for national cohesion, which resulted in rejection of dissenters. These results are in line with theoretical models of authoritarianism as a response to threat. They are also in line with findings linking death anxiety and the threat of infectious disease to increases in authoritarianism, traditional worldview defense, in-group cohesion and sexual restrictiveness.
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... The LGBT community has been labeled a "rainbow plague" (Reuters, 2019) and in 2019 several cities declared themselves "LGBT free zones." 3 Participants of the first pride parade in the conservative Polish town of Bialystok were violently attacked by alt right activists (Santora, 2019). The COVID-19 pandemic intensified animosity toward the LGBT community, and the "anti-LGBT ideology" narrative was at the core of Andrzej Duda's 2020 presidential campaign (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021a, 2021bWalker, 2020). The largely uncontested rejection of the LGBT community in public life under Law and Justice suggests the existence of latent homophobia in Poland over and above the explicit, overt homophobia identified by national surveys and expressed in political discourse (Mole et al., 2022). ...
... National collective narcissism is a belief that the exaggerated greatness of the nation is not sufficiently recognized by others Golec de Zavala et al., 2009. It is a robust predictor of explicit prejudice toward stigmatized groups within the nation (e.g., women; Golec de Zavala et al., 2021a, 2021bimmigrants, ethnic minorities, Golec de Zavala et al., 2020). National collective narcissism has also been linked to overt and explicit homophobia in Poland (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021a, 2021bGórska & Mikołajczak, 2015;Mole et al., 2022). ...
... It is a robust predictor of explicit prejudice toward stigmatized groups within the nation (e.g., women; Golec de Zavala et al., 2021a, 2021bimmigrants, ethnic minorities, Golec de Zavala et al., 2020). National collective narcissism has also been linked to overt and explicit homophobia in Poland (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021a, 2021bGórska & Mikołajczak, 2015;Mole et al., 2022). However, research is yet to establish whether collective narcissism predicts latent and concealed, implicit prejudice. ...
Born This Way? National Collective Narcissism, Implicit Homophobia, and Homosexual Essentialism in Populist Poland
Article
Full-text available
Prejudice toward the LGBT community has become prevalent in Poland under the ultraconservative populist government. The results of three studies conducted between 2018 and 2019 (N1 = 879, N2 = 324, and N3 = 374) indicate that Polish collective narcissism—the belief that the exaggerated greatness of the nation is not recognized by others—is associated with implicit homophobia assessed as the intuitive disapproval of gay men and automatic evaluative preference of heterosexuality over homosexuality. Those associations were to a large extent explained by the relationships between collective narcissism and (1) the belief that groups defined by sexual orientations are essentially distinct; (2) the belief that homosexuality is a personal choice, not genetically determined or culturally universal. The experimental results of Study 3 indicated that inducing the belief that non-normative sexuality is genetically determined and culturally universal reduced automatic preference for heterosexuality over homosexuality (but not intuitive disapproval of gay men) across levels of collective narcissism (contrary to predictions). The obtained results complete the picture of the association of narcissistic beliefs about the nation and homophobia emerging from previous studies. National narcissism is linked not only to explicit but also to latent, implicit homophobia likely to be triggered by increased presence of national narcissism in public discourse. Moreover, national narcissism is linked to implicit homophobia, especially via the agentic belief that sexual orientation is a matter of choice. Changing this belief reduces implicit homophobia also among national narcissists.
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... This would align with prior research showing that SDO is responsive to economic threat (Matthews et al., 2009), while RWA is sensitive to existential threats including pathogens (Wu & Chang, 2012). Nevertheless, recent evidence suggests that RWA is more malleable than SDO (Zubielevitch et al., 2023)-results corroborated by research showing that, while RWA increased during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021), SDO was intractable (Fischer et al., 2023). ...
... These results contrast with research conducted in Poland (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021) and the United Kingdom (Fischer et al., 2023), showing that, although SDO remained stable, authoritarianism increased after the outbreak of COVID-19. Other research conducted with a German sample reveals that authoritarianism was also lower in 2020 compared to 2017 (Heller et al., 2022). ...
... Accordingly, our study challenges the assumption that complex threats will invariably shift the public toward more anti-egalitarian or authoritarian impulses (see also Brandt et al., 2023). (Duckitt, 2001) and echo the elevated levels of authoritarianism documented early in the pandemic in countries that imposed fewer restrictions compared to New Zealand (e.g., Fischer et al., 2023;Golec de Zavala, 2021). ...
Examining change in social dominance and authoritarianism during New Zealand’s nationwide COVID-19 lockdown
Article
  • Oct 2023
  • EUR J SOC PSYCHOL
We investigated mean-level changes in social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) during (vs before) New Zealand's nationwide coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) lockdown at a time when New Zealand was led by a left-leaning government. The number of participants in the study ranged from (Ns = 24,065-24,653). Using propensity score matching to approximate experimental conditions , results show that both ideological motivations decreased slightly during the lockdown but rebounded after restrictions were removed several months later. We also tested whether the lockdown differentially moderated the associations SDO and RWA had with institutional attitudes. Lockdown conditions exacerbated the negative association between SDO and government satistfaction but attenuated the negative association between RWA and government satisfaction. Similar patterns emerged for trust in police and politicians but not trust in science. Although SDO and RWA fluctuated in similar directions during New Zealand's nationwide lockdown, our results indicate that people high in RWA may become more supportive of the government and police under such conditions-even in countries with a left-leaning political leader helming the pandemic response.
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... Les résultats d'une étude polonaise menée dans le contexte de la COVID-19, vont dans ce même sens d'une intensification de l'identification au groupe d'appartenance, laquelle est expliquée à travers le cadre de la TMT comme une défense distale à l'angoisse de mort éveillée par la pandémie (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021). En effet, les résultats de cette étude longitudinale auraient montré qu'à mesure que la pandémie progressait, l'adhésion aux valeurs traditionnelles issues de la religion catholique polonaise quant au genre et à la diversité sexuelle s'intensifiait, de même que les besoins d'ordre et de cohésion sociale. ...
... Parallèlement, les préjugés envers les femmes et les groupes issus de la diversité sexuelle devenaient aussi plus prononcés. Ces résultats font dire aux auteur.e.s que la recherche d'appartenance au groupe d'identification dans un contexte où la conscience de la mort est rendue saillante par une pandémie se mettrait à l'oeuvre non seulement à travers une emphase qui est mise sur les comportements normatifs (dans une société qui les valorise) mais aussi par des efforts pour restreindre la diversité en jugeant ou en punissant de façon plus sévère ceux qui sont vus comme des transgresseurs moraux (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021). ...
Un espace pour exister avec la mort et retrouver la sensation de la vie: expérience vécue de récits littéraires qui racontent la finitude, en temps de pandémie
Thesis
Full-text available
  • Oct 2024
Dans la pensée existentielle, le vécu humain de la finitude a été principalement réfléchi à travers le concept d’angoisse de mort. Sur le plan empirique, ce concept a surtout été étudié dans le cadre de la Terror Management Theory. Cette dernière soutient que l’être humain tente d’éviter l’angoisse de mort par différents moyens défensifs, laissant peu de place à d’autres réactions face à la finitude qui pourraient notamment être tournées vers la croissance. À cet égard, face à l’angoisse, les arts narratifs proposent des images et des récits dans lesquels engager son être et desquels dégager un sens qui aide à vivre avec l’incontrôlable et l’irrévocable. Si certains bénéfices des arts narratifs en lien avec l’angoisse de mort ont pu être identifiés, beaucoup reste à comprendre à propos de la façon dont l’expérience de la finitude se vit à travers la rencontre avec des œuvres littéraires. De plus, les recherches expérimentales n’ont à ce jour que peu porté sur cette expérience d’un point de vue qualitatif et subjectif, ce qui apparaît limité pour évoquer avec complexité et nuance ses dimensions intimes et symboliques. D’autre part, le présent processus de recherche a eu cours pendant la pandémie mondiale associée au virus SARS-CoV-2, épreuve existentielle collective susceptible d’éveiller l’angoisse de mort, et donc contexte fertile à l’étude du vécu existentiel des arts. La présente étude avait pour objectif d’explorer l’expérience vécue de l’exposition au thème de la finitude à travers la rencontre avec une œuvre littéraire où le thème de la mort est central, chez des personnes adultes, en temps de pandémie. Plus précisément, elle visait à répondre aux questions de recherche suivantes : 1) Quelle est l’expérience vécue du processus entourant la lecture d’un récit littéraire où le thème de la finitude est central? ; 2) Comment s’exprime le rapport à la mort au cœur de cette expérience? ; 3) Quel sens est donné à cette expérience de lecture dans un contexte de pandémie? Pour ce faire, un devis qualitatif s’inscrivant dans l’approche phénoménologique herméneutique-existentielle de van Manen (2016) a été retenu. Les participant.e.s (N = 8) prenaient part à une entrevue préliminaire, faisaient la lecture d’une œuvre littéraire choisie parmi une sélection de trois, puis participaient à un entretien phénoménologique semi-structuré sur leur expérience vécue de cette lecture. L’analyse a permis de dégager des catégories transversales ainsi qu’un grand thème essentiel pour chacune des questions de recherche, en plus de résultats individuels riches et évocateurs permettant de les illustrer. Globalement, l’expérience vécue auprès d’un récit littéraire ayant la finitude comme thème central se révèle ainsi être une expérience saisissante d’une rencontre personnelle avec l’auteur.e qui renforce la sensation de soi-même et de la vie (premier grand thème essentiel) et qui favorise la création d’un espace-temps propice pour exister avec la possibilité de la mort et se saisir du caractère précieux de l’existence (deuxième grand thème essentiel). Dans le contexte de la pandémie, cette expérience donne lieu à une perception intensifiée et à un sentiment de communauté autour de la souffrance liée à l’isolement pandémique – la sienne et celle de l’autre – et à une volonté de l’apaiser (troisième grand thème essentiel). Les résultats fournissent des appuis empiriques à de nombreuses idées jusqu’ici surtout formulées théoriquement à propos du rôle des arts face aux grands enjeux existentiels de la vie. La discussion met entre autres en lumière la manière dont ils s’inscrivent en cohérence avec les quatre structures fondamentales de l’existence suggérées par van Manen (1997), et comment ils sont susceptibles de contribuer à sensibiliser les milieux scientifiques, artistiques, éducatifs et cliniques aux potentiels de la rencontre avec les arts narratifs face à l’adversité existentielle, autant sur le plan individuel que collectif. Mots-clés : finitude, angoisse de mort, arts littéraires, phénoménologie herméneutique-existentielle, pandémie, recherche qualitative, population adulte
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... The literature on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer (LGBTQ+) vote has established the constitutive role of sexuality and gender identity in vote choice and the centrality of LGBTQ+ issues in electoral and broader political processes (see, for example, Hertzog, 1996;Egan et al, 2008;Perrella et al, 2012;Moreau et al, 2019;Turnbull-Dugarte, 2020;Hunklinger, 2021;Jones, 2021;. Moreover, research on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing crises on LGBTQ+ people has shown that they have been disproportionally negatively affected in all aspects of personal and community life, including political participation (see, for example, Gahan and Almack, 2020;Stokes, 2020;Golec de Zavala et al, 2021;Swan, 2023). Examining whether, how and why LGBTQ+ people respond to their marginalisation through their vote in challenging times and contexts -defined as times and contexts where various forms of crises put democracy under strain, public trust in formal politics declines, and marginalised groups are further disempowered (Superti, 2014;Portos et al, 2020;Smith et al, 2021;Bourdin and Tai, 2022;Tuorto, 2022) -may increase understanding of how they perceive and pursue LGBTQ+ politics, equality and citizenship. ...
... Many scholars concur that despite the success of social justice campaigns for LGBTQ+ people and other marginalised groups in recent years, the COVID-19 pandemic, economic crises and ensuing austerity measures have led to an increase in social and political conservativism regarding gender roles and sexual relations (see, for example, Karamessini and Rubery, 2014;Kantola and Lombardo, 2017;Kuhar and Paternotte, 2017). There is broad consensus that in times and contexts of uncertainty, heteronormativity's and cisnormativity's entrenchment and violence and injustice against LGBTQ+ individuals in the political sphere are reinforced (Gahan and Almack, 2020;Stokes, 2020;Ferree, 2021;Golec de Zavala et al, 2021;Norocel and Pettersson, 2023;Swan, 2023). Numerous recent attacks against LGBTQ+ people and the restriction of their rights in several countries, including the US, Israel, Ukraine and Hungary, substantiate these arguments (Bacchi and Georgieva, 2020;Browning, 2020;Staff, 2020;Gera, 2023). ...
Queering the ballot: the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer vote in troubled times and contexts
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2024
The literature on the lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* and queer (LGBTQ+) vote has established the constitutive role of sexuality and gender identity in vote choice. However, knowledge about how LGBTQ+ people vote in troubled times and contexts and how their voting choices and rationales relate to and affect conceptualisations and enactments of LGBTQ+ politics remains limited. This article addresses these questions based on Cypriot LGBTQ+ participants’ perspectives. The analysis of material from interviews with and questionnaires completed by LGBTQ+ participants identifies two approaches to voting among participants: voting abstention and LGBTQ+ intersectional voting. I argue that these two approaches to voting show that LGBTQ+ people understand and enact themselves as agents of intersectional social justice and radical political change. Therefore, beyond contributing to discussions about the LGBTQ+ vote, the article demonstrates the importance of LGBTQ+ individuals’ perspectives and intersectionality considerations for a well-rounded understanding of the LGBTQ+ vote and the LGBTQ+ community’s political power potential.
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... Pandemic prejudice was also evident for non-traditional women and gay people in Poland (i.e. "Sexual dissenters") [14] and foreign residents in South Korea [15]. Across these studies, the factors associated with prejudice varied, and included COVID-19 concern (10 countries and Italy), COVID-19 prevalence (South Korea), lockdowns (Greece), COVID-19 outbreak (Poland), and contracting COVID-19 (US). ...
... Most studies lack clearly resolved presentative time-series data. Only one study (in Poland [14]) was nationally representative among key demographics. With only repeated cross-sectional data and unrepresentative samples, the observed associations might not generalize. ...
The anatomy of prejudice during pandemic lockdowns: Evidence from a national panel study
Article
Full-text available
During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a spike in the reporting of hate crimes (Human Rights Watch, 2020). However, the extent to which the pandemic affected prejudice across a general population—not merely among those disposed to hate crimes—remains unclear. Also unclear is the extent to which prejudice was restricted to specific minority groups associated with the virus, or whether prejudice spilled over to other minority groups. To address these questions, we use panel data collected from participants in a large national longitudinal (panel) study of New Zealanders before and during the early COVID-19 pandemic and systematically quantified social warmth ratings across a broad range of minority-groups (The New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study, N = 30,327, years 2018–2020). We discover reduced warmth toward Chinese, Asians (broadly defined), immigrants, Muslims, refugees, Indians, and the mentally ill. In absolute terms, warmth towards Chinese decreased the most (0.11 SD). Notably, changes in warmth were not detected toward NZ Europeans, Māori, Pacific Islanders, the overweight, or the elderly. Overall, these findings suggest that in New Zealand, pandemic prejudice may spread beyond minority groups associated with the virus to other groups perceived as non-prototypical of national identity.
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... Kempthorne and Terizzi (2021) found that right-wing authoritarianism moderately predicted less covid anxiety, while Pazhoohi and Kingstone (2021) found that right-wing authoritarian traits increased as covid cases increased. In Poland, Golec de Zavala et al. (2021) found that the average level of authoritarianism increased during the outbreak of the coronavirus, while Manson (2020) found that both left-wing authoritarianism and right-wing authoritarianism positively predicted endorsement of pandemic-mitigating authoritarian policies. This is noteworthy, as our study found different results in similar populations at different stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. ...
The role of the Behavioural Immune System on Covid-19 Lockdown Attitudes: The Relationship with Authoritarianism and Collectivism
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
Background and objectives The behavioural immune system is a motivational system that facilitates the avoidance of pathogens and is thought to have evolved as a less costly mechanism to combat infectious diseases compared to the physiological immune system. The Parasite Stress Theory of Social Values predicts that authoritarianism and collectivist attitudes may impact the behavioural immune system by predisposing people to support disease control measures, including severe restrictions like lockdowns or stay-at-home-orders. This study investigates the relationship between authoritarianism, collectivism, and Covid-19 worry on support for lockdown measures during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methodology A total of 187 UK participants were recruited to complete an online survey, which was administered between 22 June and 7 July 2020. The survey included measures of authoritarianism, collectivism, Covid-19 worry, and support for lockdown measures. The data were analysed using moderated parallel mediation analysis. Results Covid-19 worry had a direct effect on support for and enforcement of lockdown measures, but not on the idea that adherence to lockdown rules should be an individual choice. The relationship between Covid Worry and Support for and Enforcement of lockdown measures was not mediated by authoritarianism, nor was it moderated by Collectivism. Collectivism and Authoritarianism were related to increased levels of support for lockdown independently from Covid Worry, but were not related to enforcement. Conclusions and implications Support for lockdown restrictions and enforcement was mainly associated with covid worry. Our findings do not support the parasite stress theory of social values, and indicate that the Behavioural Immune System manifested in a more direct way, and not through social values.
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... Surveys from Poland reveal an increase in authoritarianism, a desire for national cohesion, rejection of sexual dissenters (Golec de Zavala et al., 2021), and religiosity (Boguszewski et al., 2020). In Italy, Molteni et al. (2021) find a revival of religiosity in terms of prayer and attendance of religious services (via the internet, radio, or TV) among individuals whose family members were infected. ...
Values in Crisis: Societal Value Change under Existential Insecurity
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2023
  • SOC INDIC RES
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on societies, with possible consequences for their fundamental values. Inglehart’s revised modernization theory links societal values to the underlying subjective sense of existential security in a given society (scarcity hypothesis), while also claiming that influences on values diminish once individuals reach adulthood (socialization hypothesis). An acute existential crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic offers a rare opportunity to test these assumptions. We analyze data from representative surveys conducted in Japan shortly before and after the onset of the pandemic. Remaining survey sample differences are statistically controlled via propensity score weighting and regression adjustment, while post-stratification weights allow conclusions about the Japanese population. In three sets of analyses, we reveal that the pandemic and the experienced psychological distress are negatively associated with emancipative and secular values, entailing a reversal to traditionalism, intolerance, and religiosity. First, we document a substantial decline in both emancipative and secular values in the first months of the pandemic compared to five months earlier. This decline remained stable a year later. Second, we find that value change was stronger in prefectures more severely affected by the pandemic. Third, individuals who experienced higher psychological distress emphasized the same values more strongly, as evident in two surveys from May 2020 and April 2021. In contrast to the socialization hypothesis, our study provides evidence that, under extraordinary environmental conditions, values can shift even within a negligibly short time period.
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Obedience to authorities is not unconditional: Differential effects of COVID‐19 threat on three facets of RWA in Poland and Germany
Article
  • Jun 2023
Collective authoritarian responses to threat might differ depending on whether people trust collective authorities in reducing threat. Thus, we tested the differential effects of epidemic threat on three facets of right‐wing authoritarianism, in Germany (a country with high authorities' efficacy in responses to COVID‐19) and Poland (low authorities' efficacy context). Two representative sample longitudinal studies performed in Poland ( N = 892) and Germany ( N = 883) showed that in Germany feelings of COVID‐19 threat explained increases in authoritarian submission and (to a lesser extent) authoritarian aggression, whereas in Poland such feelings of threat explained changes in authoritarian aggression and conventionalism after the pandemic, but did not alter authoritarian submission. These findings suggest that specific authoritarian reactions to threat (submissive vs. conventionalist) might depend on the general trust in authorities' ability to respond to crises.
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Low Self-Esteem Predicts Out-Group Derogation via Collective Narcissism, but This Relationship Is Obscured by In-Group Satisfaction
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2019
According to social identity theory, low self-esteem motivates group members to derogate out-groups, thus achieving positive in-group distinctiveness and boosting self-esteem. According to the Frankfurt School and status politics theorists, low self-esteem motivates collective narcissism (i.e., resentment for insufficient external recognition of the in-group’s importance), which predicts out-group derogation. Empirical support for these propositions has been weak. We revisit them addressing whether (1) low self-esteem predicts out-group derogation via collective narcissism, and (2) this indirect relationship is only observed after partialling out the positive overlap between collective narcissism and in-group satisfaction (i.e., belief that the in-group is of high value and a reason to be proud). Results based on cross-sectional (Study 1, N = 427) and longitudinal (Study 2, N = 853) designs indicated that self-esteem is uniquely, negatively linked to collective narcissism and uniquely, positively linked to in-group satisfaction. Results based on cross-sectional (Study 3, N = 506; Study 4, N = 1059; Study 5, N = 471), longitudinal (Study 6, N = 410), and experimental (Study 7, N = 253) designs corroborated these inferences. Further, they revealed that the positive overlap between collective narcissism and in-group satisfaction obscures the link between self-esteem and out-group derogation.
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Beyond the Cross-Lagged Panel Model: Next-Generation Statistical Tools for Analyzing Interdependencies Across the Life Course
Article
Full-text available
  • Sep 2018
  • Adv Life Course Res
For decades, researchers have employed the Cross-Lagged Panel Model (CLPM) to analyze the interactions and interdependencies of a wide variety of inner- or supra-individual variables across the life course. However, in the last years the CLPM has been criticized for its underlying assumptions and several alternative models have been proposed that allow to relax these assumptions. With the Random-Intercept CLPM, the Autoregressive Latent Trajectory Model with Structured Residuals, and the Dual Change Score Model, we describe three of the most prominent alternatives to the CLPM and provide an impression about how to interpret the results obtained with these models. To this end, we illustrate the use of the presented models with an empirical example on the interplay between self-esteem and relationship satisfaction. We provide R and Mplus scripts that might help life course researchers to use these novel and powerful alternatives to the CLPM in their own research.
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Gender as “Ebola from Brussels”: The Anticolonial Frame and the Rise of Illiberal Populism
Article
Full-text available
  • Jul 2018
This article examines the recent wave of grassroots mobilizations opposing gender equality, LGBT rights, and sex education, which vilify the term “gender” in public debates and policy documents. The antigender movement emerged simultaneously in various locations after 2010. We argue that this is not just another wave of antifeminist backlash or a new tactic of the Vatican in its ongoing efforts to undermine gender equality but represents a new ideological and political configuration that emerged in response to the global economic crisis of 2008 and the ongoing crisis of liberal democracy. The backlash of the eighties and nineties combined neoconservatism with market fundamentalism (which is to some extent still the case with neoconservative Christian fundamentalists in the United States and elsewhere), while the new movement—though in many ways a continuation of earlier trends—tends to combine gender conservatism with a critique of neoliberalism and globalization. Liberal elites are presented as “colonizers”; “genderism” is demonized as an ideology imposed by the world’s rich on the poor. Thanks to the anticolonial frame, antigenderism has remarkable ideological coherence and great mobilizing power: right-wing populists have captured the imagination and hearts of large portions of local populations more effectively than progressive movements have managed to do. The article examines the basic tenets of antigenderism, shedding light on how this ideology contributes to the contemporary transnational resurgence of illiberal populism. We argue that today’s global Right, while selectively borrowing from liberal-Left and feminist discourses, is in fact constructing a new universalism, an illiberal one. While the examples discussed are mostly from Poland, the pattern is transnational, and our conclusions may have serious implications for feminist theory and activism.
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Investigating Right Wing Authoritarianism With a Very Short Authoritarianism Scale
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2018
Authoritarianism has been an important explanatory concept for more than 60 years and a powerful predictor of social, political, and intergroup attitudes and behaviour. An important impediment to research on authoritarianism has been the length of the measures available, particularly with the contemporary emphasis on the need for social research to use larger, more representative samples and measure multiple constructs across multiple domains. We therefore developed a six-item Very Short Authoritarianism (VSA) scale that equally represented the three content subdimensions and two directions of wording of Altemeyer’s widely used Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale. Over four samples (N = 1,601) from three countries the VSA scale showed satisfactory internal consistency and the expected hierarchical factor structure with three primary factors loading on a single higher-order factor. Additionally, the scale predicted variables such as nationalism, ethnocentrism, political orientation, political party/candidate support, attitudes towards ingroups or outgroups and anti-minority bias at moderate to strong levels with effects very close to those obtained for much longer established measures of RWA (including Altemeyer’s scale). The VSA scale also showed clearly better reliability and validity than a short measure of authoritarian parental values that has been used to measure authoritarianism.
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The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy: Men Who Perceive Women's Nurturance and Sexuality as Mutually Exclusive Endorse Patriarchy and Show Lower Relationship Satisfaction
Article
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The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy (MWD) denotes polarized perceptions of women in general as either “good,” chaste, and pure Madonnas or as “bad,” promiscuous, and seductive whores. Whereas prior theories focused on unresolved sexual complexes or evolved psychological tendencies, feminist theory suggests the MWD stems from a desire to reinforce patriarchy. Surveying 108 heterosexual Israeli men revealed a positive association between MWD endorsement and patriarchy-enhancing ideology as assessed by Social Dominance Orientation (preference for hierarchical social structures), Gender-Specific System Justification (desire to maintain the existing gender system), and sexist attitudes (Benevolent and Hostile Sexism, Sexual Objectification of Women, and Sexual Double Standards). In addition, MWD endorsement negatively predicted men’s romantic relationship satisfaction. These findings support the feminist notion that patriarchal arrangements have negative implications for the well-being of men as well as women. Specifically, the MWD not only links to attitudes that restrict women’s autonomy, but also impairs men’s most intimate relationships with women. Increased awareness of motives underlying the MWD and its psychological costs can help practice professionals (e.g., couple therapists), as well as the general public, to foster more satisfying heterosexual relationships.
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Intergroup Contact as the Missing Link Between LGB Rights and Sexual Prejudice
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2017
  • SOC PSYCHOL-GERMANY
Although research has revealed that more progressive LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) rights are positively associated with more favorable attitudes toward sexual minorities, little is known about why LGB rights co-occur with positive attitudes. The present contribution fills this gap by testing whether the prevalence of intergroup contact with LGB individuals explains the relationship between more progressive LGB rights and sexual prejudice. Utilizing representative Eurobarometer data from 28 European Union Member States, we find that progressive institutional arrangements positively predict favorable attitudes toward sexual minorities by rendering intergroup contact with LGB individuals more commonplace. Importantly, this pattern of findings replicates for different measures of prejudice and LGB-related legislation. The theoretical and practical implications of the current findings are discussed.
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Movement/countermovement interaction and instrumental framing in a multi-level world: rooting Polish lesbian and gay activism
Article
Full-text available
  • Jun 2017
This article explores how movements frame their claims and identities in response to opposing movements. We build on previous scholarship by tracing how movements instrumentally navigate such a response – aligning new frames with their old ones – as interactions between opposing movements persist. The case of Poland demonstrates how the lesbian and gay (LG) movement’s frames developed from embracing universal and European themes to more rooted politics. We show how external discursive opportunities surrounding European Union accession shaped the frames of both the movement and its opposition around similar resonant themes, though with distinct interpretations. The countermovement converged around a frame of external forces imposing values on the nation – largely in a differentiated response to the international human rights frames touted by the LG movement initially. The LG movement responded strategically by emphasizing its Polishness in frames that signal a far more rooted politics of sexuality than before. These findings confirm much of what research has established concerning the relationship between opposing movements, but they also go beyond it, exploring how multi-level discursive opportunities can emerge simultaneously for both movements, leading to a contest of interpreting the politically potent symbols that come to the fore. Drawing on multiple years of fieldwork with Polish civil society actors, we use content analysis to trace the trajectory of the LG movement’s frames, making the crucial point that they are shaped by ongoing movement/countermovement interactions, as well as the multi-level discursive context in which they operate.
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Ebola Salience, Death-Thought Accessibility, and Worldview Defense: A Terror Management Theory Perspective
Article
Full-text available
  • Apr 2017
According to terror management theory, individuals defend their cultural beliefs following mortality salience. The current research examined whether naturally occurring instances of death (i.e., Ebola) correspond to results found in laboratory studies. The results of two experiments demonstrated that participants experienced a greater accessibility of death-related thoughts in response to an Ebola prime during a regional outbreak. Study 2 also showed that increased mortality awareness following an Ebola manipulation was associated with greater worldview defense (i.e., religious fundamentalism). Together, these results suggest that reminders of death in the form of a disease threat operate similarly to a mortality salience manipulation.
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Pathogen prevalence is associated with cultural changes in gender equality
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2016
  • Nat. Hum. Behav.
Gender equality has varied across time, with dramatic shifts in countries such as the United States in the past several decades. Although differences across societies and changes within societies in gender equality have been well documented, the causes of these changes remain poorly understood. Scholars have posited that such shifts have been driven by specific events (such as Title IX and Roe versus Wade), broader social movements (such as feminism and women’s liberation) or general levels of social development (for example, modernization theory1). Although these factors are likely to have been partly responsible for temporal variations in gender equality, they provide fairly intermediate explanations void of a comprehensive framework. Here, we use an ecological framework to explore the role of key ecological dimensions on change in gender equality over time. We focus on four key types of ecological threats/affordances that have previously been linked to cultural variations in human behaviour as potential explanations for cultural change in gender equality: infectious disease, resource scarcity, warfare and climatic stress. We show that decreases in pathogen prevalence in the United States over six decades (1951–2013) are linked to reductions in gender inequality and that such shifts in rates of infectious disease precede shifts in gender inequality. Results were robust, holding when we controlled for other ecological dimensions and for collectivism and conservative ideological identification (indicators of more broadly traditional cultural norms and attitudes). Furthermore, the effects were partially mediated by reduced teenage birth rates (a sign that people are adopting slower life history strategies), suggesting that life history strategies statistically account for the relationship between pathogen prevalence and gender inequality over time. Finally, we replicated our key effects in a different society, using comparable data from the United Kingdom over a period of seven decades (1945–2014).
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Benevolent and hostile sexism differentially predicted by facets of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation
Article
  • Mar 2019
  • PERS INDIV DIFFER
Despite progress towards equality on many fronts, sexism remains a problem. If sexism is to be combatted, an understanding of the attitudes underlying its various expressions is required. Previous research has strongly linked sexism to right-wing authoritarianism (a preference for collective security) and social dominance orientation (a preference for group-based hierarchy). Both are often considered unitary constructs, however recent attention to their facets has revealed finer details. This study breaks ground by utilising these facets to predict benevolent sexism (paternalistic attitudes towards women) and hostile sexism (antipathy towards women) in an Australian sample (N = 229). Both sexism variables were significantly predicted by two of the five attitude facets. For benevolent sexism, these were traditionalism and dominance, and for hostile sexism, they were conservatism and anti-egalitarianism. Hostile sexism was also predicted by gender. These findings add to the theoretical understanding of ambivalent sexism, have implications for addressing sexism in society, and support calls for future research to utilise the facets of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation.
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