Do Threats Galvanize Authoritarians or Mobilize Non-Authoritarians?

• In Event: The Causes & Consequences of Authoritarianism

Abstract

Authoritarian predispositions and contextual threats are both believed to produce intolerance and prejudice towards immigrants and other minorities. Yet there is considerable dispute as to how authoritarianism and threats interact to produce an “authoritarian dynamic.” Some scholars argue that threats increase intolerance by “galvanizing” authoritarians. Others claim that authoritarians are always intolerant toward minority outgroups, with threat instead “mobilizing” non-authoritarians. Using experimental manipulations of immigrant cultural threat embedded in national-representative samples from 19 European societies, this study offers a dispositive test of these competing hypotheses. We find evidence for the “galvanizing” hypothesis and no evidence for the “mobilizing” hypothesis. The effects vary considerably across our national samples however, with immigrants from Muslim societies being particularly likely to activate authoritarian predispositions. These findings are important for understanding how the migration of culturally distinctive groups has the potential to activate authoritarian dispositions, thereby pushing the issue of immigration to the center of political debates.

Authors

• Christopher Claassen, University of Glasgow

• Lauren M. McLaren, University of Leicester