Authoritarian Opposition? Authoritarian Disposition and Resistance to Public Health Mitigation Strategies During Covid-19

Bibliographic Data

ID6340869
AuthorsMark D Ramirez (0000-0002-0988-2746, Arizona State University, corresponding author), Robert Muir Wood (0000-0001-6898-7575, University of Essex)
Year2024
Volume77
Issue1
Pages239-254
Publication date2024-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Research Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1065-9129 • E-ISSN: 1938-274X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/10659129231204234
OpenAlexW4387220603
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited53

Government restrictions intended to mitigate the spread of COVID-19—such as “lockdowns,” mask mandates, and vaccine passports—produced intense resentment among some groups and led to resistance, defiance, and social unrest in many countries. To better understand the roots of this opposition, we examine the role of dispositional authoritarianism as a psychological motivator of participation in anti-restriction protests and support for the groups that engaged in such actions. Because obedience to authority is commonly identified as a core feature of authoritarianism, existing studies have suggested authoritarians should be more likely to endorse pandemic restrictions and oppose anti-government dissent. However, we propose the alternative hypothesis: individuals with authoritarian dispositions are more likely to oppose pandemic restrictions and more likely to express support for pandemic dissidents (e.g., anti-vax and anti-lockdown groups). Data from three surveys deployed in the United States and United Kingdom support our hypotheses, demonstrating a counterintuitive relationship between dispositional authoritarianism and opposition to public health authorities during the pandemic. We further find that dispositional authoritarianism produces an intriguing misalignment between ideology and support for pandemic restrictions among those on the left, leading liberals who score high in authoritarianism to mirror the attitudes and behaviors of their conservative counterparts

Authoritarianism · Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19 · Democracy · Dissent · Ideology · Opposition (politics · Pandemic · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Law · Psychology · Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology

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