“Our Country Needs a Strong Leader Right Now”: Economic Inequality Enhances the Wish for a Strong Leader

Author:

Sprong Stefanie1ORCID,Jetten Jolanda2,Wang Zhechen23ORCID,Peters Kim4,Mols Frank5,Verkuyten Maykel6ORCID,Bastian Brock7,Ariyanto Amarina8,Autin Frédérique9,Ayub Nadia10,Badea Constantina11ORCID,Besta Tomasz12,Butera Fabrizio13ORCID,Costa-Lopes Rui14ORCID,Cui Lijuan15,Fantini Carole16,Finchilescu Gillian17,Gaertner Lowell18,Gollwitzer Mario19ORCID,Gómez Ángel20,González Roberto21,Hong Ying-Yi22ORCID,Jensen Dorthe Høj23,Jasinskaja-Lahti Inga24,Karasawa Minoru25,Kessler Thomas26,Klein Olivier27,Lima Marcus28,Mégevand Laura29,Morton Thomas30,Paladino Paola31,Polya Tibor32,Renvik Tuuli Anna3334,Ruza Aleksejs35,Shahrazad Wan36,Shama Sushama37,Smith Heather J.38,Torres Ana Raquel39,van der Bles Anne Marthe40,Wohl Michael J. A.41

Affiliation:

1. Department of Sociology, Trinity College Dublin

2. School of Psychology, University of Queensland

3. School of Basic Medical Sciences & Forensic Medicine, Hangzhou Medical College

4. Department of Psychology, University of Exeter

5. School of Political Science and International Studies, University of Queensland

6. Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science, Utrecht University

7. School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne

8. Faculty of Psychology, University of Indonesia

9. Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage, Université de Poitiers, Université de Tours, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

10. Business Psychology Department, Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan

11. Psychology Department, Université Paris Nanterre

12. Institute of Psychology, University of Gdańsk

13. Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne

14. Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon

15. School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University

16. Department of Psychology, Université Libre de Bruxelles

17. Psychology Department, University of the Witwatersrand

18. Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville

19. Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München

20. Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia

21. School of Psychology, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile

22. Department of Marketing, Business School, Chinese University of Hong Kong

23. Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University

24. Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki

25. Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences, Nagoya University

26. Department of Psychology, University of Jena

27. Faculty of Psychological Sciences and Education, Université Libre de Bruxelles

28. Psychology Department, Federal University of Sergipe

29. School of Social Sciences, ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon

30. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen

31. Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science, University of Trento

32. Institute for Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences

33. Department of Social Psychology, University of Helsinki

34. Open University, University of Helsinki

35. Social Psychology Department, Daugavpils University

36. School of Psychology and Human Development, National University of Malaysia

37. Department of Education, Kurukshetra University

38. Department of Psychology, Sonoma State University

39. Department of Psychology, Federal University of Paraíba

40. Department of Social Psychology, University of Groningen

41. Department of Psychology, Carleton University

Abstract

Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community sample (Study 2, N = 515), and two experiments (Study 3a, N = 96; Study 3b, N = 296). We found correlational (Studies 1 and 2) and experimental (Studies 3a and 3b) evidence for our prediction that higher inequality enhances the wish for a strong leader. We also found that this relationship is mediated by perceptions of anomie, except in the case of objective inequality in Study 1. This suggests that societal inequality enhances the perception that society is breaking down (anomie) and that a strong leader is needed to restore order (even when that leader is willing to challenge democratic values).

Funder

the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research CIIR

australian research council

the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies

Publisher

SAGE Publications

Subject

General Psychology

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