The core of division

Examining how essentialist views of the U.S. underlie right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and nationalism

Bibliographic Data

ID21739547
AuthorsJason M Miller (0000-0001-5671-4932, University of North Georgia, corresponding author), Mark J Landau (0000-0002-5717-754X, University of Kansas)
Year2025
Volume25
Issue1
Publication date2025-04-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnalyses of Social Issues and Public Policy (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1529-7489 • E-ISSN: 1530-2415
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/asap.12439
OpenAlexW4404209499
LanguageEN
References cited62

We propose that political polarization stems in part from differing conceptions of one's nation. Four studies tested the hypothesis that national essentialism – conceiving one's nation as possessing an inherent, unchanging essence – underlies three political ideologies: right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and nationalism. Study 1 ( n = 263) provides correlational evidence that essentialist thinking about the U.S. positively predicted all three ideological variables, as well as support for conservative policies regarding religion, taxes, the environment, and immigration. Converging experiments show that prompting participants to think about the U.S.’s essence increased support for RWA and nationalism, but not SDO. Study 2 ( n = 164) compared an essentialist to a non‐essentialist framing of the U.S., while Study 3 ( n = 150) compared essentialist framings of the U.S. to an unrelated concept (music). Parallel mediation analyses show that support for RWA and nationalism mediated the relationship between primed national essentialism and support for conservative policy positions. Study 4 ( n = 174) directly replicated Study 2 and went further to test mediators, showing that perceptions of intergroup threat mediated the effect of national essentialism on RWA, while national identification mediated the effect of national essentialism on nationalism. Data and materials are publicly available at: ( https://osf.io/srvxk/?view_only=d803fbf4c59c4b7e912f5a345ddb09b9 )

Authoritarianism · Biology · Democracy · Essentialism · Geometry · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Right wing · Social dominance orientation · Sociology · Wing · Electoral Systems and Political Participation · Engineering · Gender Studies · Law · Mathematics · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Psychology · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology · Genetics

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