The Dark Triad traits predict authoritarian political correctness and alt-right attitudes

Jordan Moss; Peter J O'Connor

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04453

The Dark Triad traits predict authoritarian political correctness and alt-right attitudes

Heliyon. 2020 Jul 18;6(7):e04453. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04453. eCollection 2020 Jul.

Authors

Jordan Moss¹, Peter J O'Connor²

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology and Counselling, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.
² School of Management, QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia.

Abstract

It is well established that mainstream personality traits are associated with moderate, traditional political attitudes. However, very little is known regarding trait predictors of extreme political attitudes. In the current study (N = 511 U.S. residents), we examined the relationships between the Dark Triad traits, Entitlement and three extreme political attitudes that are highly covered in mainstream media: White Identitarianism ('Alt-Right'), Political Correctness-Authoritarianism, and Political Correctness-Liberalism. We found that Dark Triad traits and Entitlement had incremental validity in the prediction of these 3 attitudes over demographic factors. The Dark Triad traits and Entitlement explained a substantial portion of variance in White Identitarianism and Political Correctness-Authoritarianism, and only a small portion of variance in Political Correctness-Liberalism. Across all attitudes, Psychopathy and Entitlement were the most consistent, strongest predictors. Results indicate that, from a Dark Triad perspective, Authoritarian PC advocates have more in common with extreme right advocates than those holding PC views related to compassion.

Keywords: Alt right; Applied psychology; Dark triad; Entitlement; Extremism; Individual differences; Personality assessment; Political attitudes; Political behavior; Political correctness; Psychology.