Friday, February 05, 2016

A Better Measure of Authoritarians Supporting Trump


Jonathan Haidt and Emily Ekins report the results of a survey of the moral concerns of voters who support different presidential candidates. This survey draws on Haidt's Moral Foundations Theory, which I have written about several times

The whole article is rich on many candidates.  Here I want to lift up just one sentence: 

Voters who still score high on authority/loyalty/sanctity and low on care — even after accounting for all the demographic variables — are significantly more likely to vote for Donald Trump. These are the true authoritarians — they value obedience while scoring low on compassion.  

There was on another point that caught my eye on the Democratic side.  Bernie Sanders supporters scored highest on the classic liberal virtue of care for the vulnerable.  They were also surprisingly strong in supporting individual liberty - young libertarians went for Sanders more than any other candidate except Rand Paul.  "Meanwhile, Moral Foundations do not significantly predict a vote for Hillary Clinton; demographic variables seem to be all you need to predict her support (being female, nonwhite, and higher-income are all good predictors)." 

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