Authoritarianism, Social Dominance, and Evaluation of In-Group vs. Out-Group Propaganda Among Police Officers

• In Event: Top Papers in Intergroup Communication: Advances in Theorizing and Measuring Intergroup Contact

Abstract

Mass media have ascribed German police officers to be “blind on the right eye” but eager to persecute Muslims as extremists. We tested this assumption by confronting German police officers (N=69) with comparable right-wing (RE) and Islamic extremist (IE) propaganda videos. Based on former findings, we proposed RE to activate negative social identity (collective shame) among Germans. To handle this identity-threat, in contrast to the media accusations, police-officers were expected to distance more from in- than out-group propaganda unless they hold social attitudes (authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, SDO) known to foster prejudice.

In line with our hypotheses, in-group propaganda increased shame and decreased interest as compared to out-group material. Furthermore, authoritarianism and egalitarian attitudes (SDO-E) predicted the evaluation of in-group but not out-group propaganda. Authoritarianism was confirmed as risk factor for a less negative evaluation of in-group extremism; meanwhile SDO-E had the opposite effect. Results are discussed concerning the role of social identity and social attitudes for the work of the police and the evaluation of extremist propaganda.

Authors

• Lena Frischlich, University of Cologne

• Kim Michelle Lefarth, German Sport U Cologne

• Gary Bente, U of Cologne