Authoritarian attitudes in Russia: Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in the modern Russian context

Asian Journal of Social Psychology. 2022. Vol. 25. No. 4. P. 623–645.

Grigoryev D., Batkhina A., Conway L. G., Zubrod A.

The study of authoritarianism has a long history in the field of psychology; however, much of this research focuses on Western countries, especially the United States. In effort to better understand authoritarianism cross-culturally, we explore the current state of authoritarianism in an important cultural context: Russia. Thus, the current paper explores large-scale research of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation in the modern Russian context. Six studies (total N = 1358) included personality traits, basic human values, social beliefs, and intergroup attitudes that allowed us to comprehensively consider authoritarian attitudes in Russia. The results showed that personological profile and pattern of reaction to threat among Russian authoritarians is similar to Western authoritarians. However, economic views inherited from Soviet ideology make Russians differ in their view on economic conservatism supported by Western authoritarians. These data provide insight into the psychology of authoritarianism as well as explore novel aspects of Russian culture.

Keywords: basic human values, intergroup attitudes, personality traits, social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism, social beliefs, authoritarian personality

Publication based on the results of: Values, intercultural and socio-economic interaction in the context of ethnic diversity and the COVID-19 pandemic (2022)