Examining relations between left-wing authoritarianism and environmentalism

Abstract

Individuals who endorse system-justifying ideologies are less likely to uphold pro-environmental orientations. Indeed, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) correlate negatively with environmentalism. Yet recent theorising and empirical findings suggest that authoritarianism may also serve left-wing goals. Extending past research, we report new cross-cultural data (US, N = 512; New Zealand, N = 447) examining the associations between Left-Wing Authoritarianism (LWA) and environmentalism, and whether the LWA–environmentalism associations mirror correlations observed for RWA and SDO. Results showed that environmentalism correlates positively with LWA and negatively with both RWA and SDO. Collectively, our results demonstrate that endorsement of right-wing authoritarian leanings is more detrimental to environmental protection than the rejection of left-wing authoritarian leanings. We discuss the implications of our results for the field’s understanding of LWA and ways to address environmental problems.