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*The Ethnic and Political Divide in the Preference for Strong Leaders
Krishnan Nair1, Marlon Mooijman2, Maryam Kouchaki3
1Gies College of Business, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
Ethnic minorities, like right-wing individuals, show a stronger preference for strong leaders compared to left-wing individuals. Generalized trust may explain these differences in leadership preferences across diverse groups.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Political Science
- Sociology
Background:
- Previous research linked strong leader preference primarily to right-wing ideology.
- The influence of ethnicity on leadership preferences has been under-examined.
- Existing theories may not fully capture the complexity of leadership preferences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of ethnicity in the preference for strong leaders.
- To challenge the assumption that strong leader preference is exclusive to right-wing individuals.
- To explore the mediating role of generalized trust in leadership preference differences.
Main Methods:
- Analysis of a large dataset (N = 34,443) from the United States and Western Europe.
- Utilized measurement-of-mediation (Studies 1-4) and experimental mediation (Studies 5-6).
- Compared leadership preferences across ethnic minority and White participants, and across political ideologies.
Main Results:
- Ethnic minorities and right-wing individuals showed a greater preference for strong leaders than Whites and left-wing individuals, respectively.
- Ethnic minorities' preferences aligned more closely with right-wing Whites than left-wing Whites.
- Generalized trust emerged as a significant factor explaining group differences in strong-leader preference.
Conclusions:
- Leadership preference is not solely determined by political ideology; ethnicity plays a crucial role.
- Left-wing Whites exhibit distinct leadership preferences compared to other groups.
- Future social science research should prioritize diverse participant samples to ensure theory generalizability.
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