A study published in PLOS One suggests that political extremism — specifically, the endorsement of political correctness or white identitarian attitudes — can be partly explained by individual differences in disposition and upbringing.
There has been great discussion concerning the increased polarization of the American political landscape. It has been speculated that an increasing number of citizens are endorsing extreme attitudes at the farthest ends of the spectrum, leaving a larger gap between liberals and conservatives.
On the far left, extremism is evidenced by political correctness (PC), which can be described as the intention to avoid offending any group of people. For the Alt-Right, extremism typically includes white identitarian (WI) attitudes, which involve pronounced feelings of white identity, solidarity, and victimization.
Given that the endorsement of these attitudes is associated with negative behaviors, study authors Jordan T. Moss and Peter J. O’Connor wanted to investigate the possible psychological predictors of such extremism. Specifically, they explored whether personality, overparenting, social media use, and moral absolutism can predict the endorsement of PC or WI attitudes.
A total of 512 U.S. residents between the ages of 18 and 84 completed an online survey. The questionnaire included assessments of politically correct attitudes, white identitarian attitudes, moral absolutism, and the Big Five Personality traits of Openness-Intellect, Extraversion, Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism. Subjects additionally answered questions that assessed how overbearing and controlling they felt their parents were during their childhood.
Moss and O’Connor found that only a small number of respondents upheld extreme attitudes. Specifically, around 8% of respondents demonstrated PC Liberalism and 6% demonstrated PC Authoritarianism. Around 14% demonstrated Alt-Right attitudes.
The researchers did uncover certain predictors for these extreme attitudes. Social media use was found to predict PC Liberalism and Authoritarianism but did not predict WI attitudes. Moss and O’Connor reason that this could be because Facebook, the platform that 56% of the sample indicated as their most used site, houses more left than right content.
Interestingly, the findings offered evidence that parenting can motivate the development of far left attitudes. As the researchers report, “overprotective parenting and low levels of resilience differentiated whether extreme attitudes on the left manifested as PCL or PCA (contributing to PCA but not PCL).”
When it came to personality traits, both Liberal and Authoritarian Political Correctness were predicted by Agreeableness (specifically Compassion). White identitarian attitudes, on the other hand, were negatively predicted by Agreeableness (specifically, Politeness) and by Openness-Intellect. As the researchers discuss, the Alt-Right presented with the reverse personality as PC Liberals, “with PCL positively predicted by traits Openness-Intellect and Agreeableness.”
“It is possible,” the authors add, “that progressive advocacy of ethnic diversity serves as confirmation for AR adherents of the narrative that whites are being displaced. This narrative then motivates their defence of white identity through anti-leftism. This suggests that the AR may be more appropriately conceptualised as the extreme opposition to progressivism.”
Interestingly, researchers found a positive relationship between PC Authoritarianism and WI attitudes. The researchers suggest that this finding may indicate that a shared trait exists between the two constructs. Specifically, moral absolutism, as measured by black-and-white thinking, was found to positively predict both extremist attitudes.
Moss and O’Connor suggest that future studies should further explore the predictors of extreme political attitudes outside the United States.
The authors conclude, “this study contributes to the literature, finding that political differences are not insubstantial, but are largely explained by one’s environment, upbringing, and individual disposition.”
The study, “Political correctness and the alt-right: The development of extreme political attitudes”, was authored by Jordan T. Moss and Peter J. O’Connor.
