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Perceived grievance and individualising moralities: exploring the psychological structure of left-wing authoritarianism
... Across the studies, results revealed that people scoring high on LWA perceived different contexts as more threatening (e.g., ecological threats, MAGA Republicans,etc.). These results align with other investigations highlighting that perceived grievance tends to be particularly high among left-wing authoritarians (Fasce & Avendaño, 2023;Love & Sharman, 2024). ...
Authoritarian attitudes across the political spectrum foster radical behaviors, which adversely affect the social fabric. Both left-wing (LWA) and right-wing (RWA) forms of authoritarianism have been described in relation to their psychological correlates, yet little is known about their neurobiological basis. In this study, we explored brain structural correlates (e.g., in cortical thickness (CT) and gray matter (GM) volume) of authoritarianism. For this purpose, we assessed authoritarian dispositions in a sample of 100 young adults and collected 3 T MR images. Images were computed using the CAT12 toolbox. Behaviorally, both the LWA and RWA were positively associated with negative urgency; the LWA also showed a robust positive association with trait anxiety. At the neural level, results showed a negative correlation (r = -0.48) between RWA and a GM volume cluster located in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). In addition, we also observed a negative correlation (r = -0.41) between the LWA anti-hierarchical aggression subscale and a CT cluster located in the right anterior insula. Additionally, the resulting clusters converged with further left-wing and right-wing ideology scales related to LWA and RWA, thus providing a robustness check. These results are supported by previous studies showing the relevance of the dmPFC and the anterior insula on social cognition and empathy/inhibitory control, respectively.
Although authority relationships are obviously ubiquitous in organizations, management scholars have, curiously, contributed little to the substantial body of research into the authoritarian personality. Moreover, an observed large‐magnitude negative relationship between authoritarianism and ethical relativism, first reported over a quarter century ago, has made almost no meaningful impact on our conceptions of either construct. Perhaps as a consequence, some business ethics researchers have gravitated toward demonstrably inaccurate interpretations of relativism. From these starting points, this paper makes the case that an understanding of the authoritarian personality, with its grounding in low relativism, may provide otherwise unavailable insights into business ethics. Past research reveals that high authoritarians readily comply with authority figures that advocate ethically questionable actions, prioritize the needs of business over concern for the natural environment, appear to lack personal initiative at work, display hostile and aggressive tendencies, and often view diverse others negatively. Awareness of such findings may expand research horizons to include the possibility that highly authoritarian employees might, for example, regard organizational attempts to increase diversity or ‘go green’ as anathema, want no part of participation in decision making, and feel totally justified when engaging in bullying behaviors at work. Managers wanting intelligent and creative employees able both to think for themselves and take initiative, and employees who lack preconceived notions of inferiority about diverse others that has to be overcome when interacting with them at work, should consider hiring persons who are low in authoritarianism.
Liberals tend to indicate being less happy than conservatives; although one perspective suggests this happiness gap reflects liberals’ enhanced concern over the systemic maltreatment of others, the “maladjustment perspective” suggests it reflects, in part, liberals’ tendencies to reject aspects of conservatism that support agency and produce some life benefits. Some evidence seems to favor the maladjustment perspective; but, here, we sought to build on this perspective by examining its predictions in the context of Left-wing Authoritarianism (LWA). LWA is positively associated with liberalism, but, relative to liberalism, it encompasses aspects more rejecting of conservatism. US adults (N = 446) completed measures of LWA, happiness, agency, life impairment, and antagonistic personality constructs (e.g., sadism). The data supported the maladjustment perspective in the context of LWA: After accounting for liberalism (and demographics inclusive of age and sex), LWA was negatively related to happiness and positively related to agency deficiencies and life impairments; the latter two characteristics (reflective of maladjustment) completely accounted for LWA’s negative relation to happiness. These findings were generally consistent across LWA’s three facets. LWA also had a positive relationship to antagonistic personality constructs; hence, LWA is probably not conducive to enhanced concern over the systemic maltreatment of others. Additional analyses revealed that the anti-conventional facet of LWA completely accounted for relationships between liberalism and happiness, agency deficiencies, and life impairments. The results offer some novel insight into the ideological happiness gap.
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