The Buffering Effects of Right-Wing Authoritarianism on Future Anxiety: the Mediating Role of COVID-19-Related Demoralization and Perceived Risk

In the last decade, our knowledge of authoritarianism has completely shifted from that of a personality dimension to that of a multidimensional attitudinal structure. Current theories stipulate that individuals are motivated to maintain a sense of collective security within their social group. When a group is confronted with societal threats, such as COVID-19, individuals respond by increasing their exhibition of authoritarian practices to maintain collective security. Where a sense of control cannot be maintained, it can contribute to poor psychological outcomes such as negative future outlooks. In the present study, we collected a community sample of 948 individuals to test how authoritarianism may alleviate feelings of future anxiety. We hypothesized that perceived risk and demoralization would mediate the effects of authoritarianism on future anxiety. Our results supported that demoralization is a significant mediator, in that higher authoritarianism is associated with lower levels of demoralization that in turn is associated with lower levels of future anxiety. However, we did not support a mediating role in the perceived risk of COVID-19. Our results illuminate a potential pathway between authoritarianism and the mitigation of maladaptive psychological outcomes in the face of societal threats. Perhaps encouragingly, authoritarianism was associated with morale but did not diminish the seriousness of the perceived threat of COVID-19. We suggest that morale be a point of future investigation when aiming to understand the effects of authoritarianism on maintaining groups’ collective security.