How a terror attack affects right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and their relationship to torture attitudes
Scandinavian Journal of Psychology
Published online on June 29, 2018
Abstract
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- " \nSelf‐reported level of right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA), the two facets of
social dominance orientation (SDO‐Dominance and SDO‐Egalitarianism) and pro‐torture
attitudes were measured both in the immediate aftermath (terror salience, N = 152)
of the terror attacks in Paris and Brussels and when terrorism was not salient (non‐salience,
N = 140). Results showed that RWA and pro‐torture attitudes, but not SDO‐Dominance
and SDO‐Egalitarianism, were significantly higher immediately after. Furthermore,
RWA and SDO both predicted pro‐torture attitudes more strongly under terror salience.
We argue that the reason why RWA is higher under terror salience is a response to
external threat, and that SDO‐Dominance may be more clearly related to acceptance
of torture and other human‐rights violations, across context. Future research on
the effects of terror‐related events on sociopolitical and pro‐torture attitudes
should focus on person‐situation interactions and also attempt to discriminate between
trait and state aspects of authoritarianism.\n"
- Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, Volume 59, Issue 5, Page 547-552, October 2018.