The Origins of Hate: How an Authoritarian Leader Can Enable Dehumanization

Abstract

This research examines an authoritarian figure’s influence on others, specifically whether a leader’s dehumanizing views enable others to adopt them. To assess this, participants engaged in a Twitter simulation of political communication, along with implicit and explicit measures of dehumanization. U.S. participants (N = 298), recruited from the online survey website Prolific, read tweets by Donald Trump, either dehumanizing or simply negative, concerning immigrants. Participants then reported whether they would retweet or quote them. While retweeting would imply approval, participants who chose to quote tweets were often disapproving of Trump’s statements. Consistent with the role of authoritarianism, both Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation predicted likelihood of retweeting. On the Ascent of Man scale, the more evolved a participant rated societal groups, the less likely they were to retweet Trump’s statements. For both the Mexican and Muslim groups on the Ascent of Man scale, participants were more likely to retweet dehumanizing tweets than negative tweets. These findings support the need for policy change regarding regulation of dehumanizing content over social media, due to the influence authoritarians can exert on their followers with high RWA or SDO orientations.