
Dark triad traits may predict PC-authoritarianism and alt-right attitudes [pdf] - pseudolus
https://scottbarrykaufman.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Moss-OConnor.pdf
======
mywittyname
Pretty interesting, I'd strongly suggest anyone commenting read the article
because the researchers use two distinct definitions of "political
correctness" which they show to be strongly anti-correlated, with the common
usage of political correctness being anti-correlated with the Dark Triad and
the "authoritarian" one being correlated to both the Dark Triad and alt-right
behavior.

In other words, the title has been changed from the original, "The Dark Triad
traits predict _authoritarian_ political correctness and alt-right attitudes"
and mis-represents the author's findings.

I'd argue that "authoritarian political correctness" is the wrong term for
questions such as, "When a charge of sexual assault is brought forth, the
alleged perpetrator should have to prove his or her innocence” as that's
straight up authoritarianism. While, "There are no biologically based
differences in personality, talent, andability to reason, between racial
groups." is pretty well aligned with conventional political correctness.

The fact that the researchers themselves show that agreement in one of those
statements strongly correlated with disagreement with the other is evidence
that supports my opinion.

------
tom-thistime
For the love of all that's holy, show your scatter plots and let us actually
see how well the data matches the claimed fit. My goodness.

------
abendy
"Moreover, it appears that the relationships between the dark side of human
personality and right-wing political orientation and extremism, respectively,
are relatively independent from each other. That is, that the endorsement of
extreme political orientations is associated with the dark side of human
personality is not a consequence of voters scoring high in the Dark Tetrad
being more politically right-leaning."[0]

[0][https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5680983/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5680983/)

This is also one of the references for this study.

------
alpha_squared
ABSTRACT:

> It is well established that mainstream personality traits are associated
> with moderate, traditional political attitudes. However, very little is
> known regarding trait predictors of extreme political attitudes. In the
> current study(N=511 U.S. residents), we examined the relationships between
> the Dark Triad traits, Entitlement and three extreme political attitudes
> that are highly covered in mainstream media: White Identitarianism (‘Alt-
> Right’),Political Correctness-Authoritarianism, and Political Correctness-
> Liberalism. We found that Dark Triad traits and Entitlement had incremental
> validity in the prediction of these 3 attitudes over demographic factors.
> The Dark Triad traits and Entitlement explained a substantial portion of
> variance in White Identitarianism and Political Correctness-
> Authoritarianism, and only a small portion of variance in Political
> Correctness-Liberalism. Across all attitudes, Psychopathy and Entitlement
> were the most consistent, strongest predictors. Results indicate that, from
> a Dark Triad perspective, Authoritarian PC advocates have more in common
> with extreme right advocates than those holding PC views related to
> compassion.

Disclaimer: I haven't read the whole research.

It feels like there's a larger underlying pattern here. I don't know if I can
synthesize a good summary of it. Seems like it might be at the intersection of
belonging/tribalism, identity, and needing to be "right" and imposing that on
others (probably where the authoritarianism comes from).

------
nordsieck
The biggest weakness of this study and anything that I've seen discussing the
"alt-right" is their arbitrary and capricious use of the term.

Alt-right is a very simple term to understand: it simply means people on the
right of the political spectrum who reject the establishment. This includes:
libertarians, monarchy restorationists, neo nazis and other groups.

The two tests for alt-right membership that were done were

1\. Opposition to progressivism (PCA/PCL)

2\. White Identitarianism

Assuming that this paper is actually measuring something (which is a big
assumption for social science "research"), it certainly doesn't measure what
it purports to measure. At best it measures the attitudes of people best
described as "race realists" (their name, not mine) who also self-identify as
White.

~~~
TheOtherHobbes
The paper also mentions that the research applies to new-left "liberal
extremists" \- not just extremists on the right.

But the hypothesis isn't really about that. It's about the _relationship
style_ of authoritarians - not their specific political tribe.

The defining features of authoritarianism are extreme in-group valorisation,
extreme out-group hostility, and demands for compliance to tribal authority
from everyone - even when that compliance is irrational (at best) or
strategically self-harming (at worst).

This is exactly what you'd expect from collective instead of individual
narcissism. There's no room for dissent, nuance, or open-minded inquiry, all
of which are seen as ego weakness, and must be hidden or punished.

The in-group has to reinforce its own fragile image of superiority at all
costs. Usually that means projecting all psychological and emotional
weaknesses onto the out-group, where they can be disowned and attacked,
sometimes with literal violence, or with verbal and intellectual violence -
like brigading, or online trolling.

The tell isn't the tribal belief system, it's the extremism, aggressive token
point scoring, and absolute lack of nuance and strategic awareness with which
it's pursued and promoted.

------
rsynnott
While I'm very dubious of this paper in general, you got the title wrong. The
full title is "The Dark Triad traits predict authoritarian political
correctness and alt-right attitudes" (note 'authoritarian').

Specifically, if claims that 'PC-A' and 'alt-right' people are more similar on
dark triad traits than 'PC-L' people. The 'PC-A' and 'PC-L' things are cited
as being from an unpublished masters thesis, so... yeah.

~~~
pseudolus
Tried to squeeze the full title in but it exceeds the 80 character limit. With
hindsight, perhaps more judicious editing of the title was called for.

------
exolymph
Commenting so I can find this again after it's inevitably flagged.

~~~
throwaway234101
What's your interest? edit: it's an honest question.

~~~
exolymph
I'm interested in HN commenters' thoughts on contentious issues.

~~~
krapp
HN's general consensus on any political issue is that, regardless of context,
the left is the true evil.

~~~
throwaway234101
This is funny. HN's general consensus on any political issue is that,
regardless of context, the right is the true evil.

And you can even test this. Support communism in a comment and see how fast
you get upvoted. Support Trump in a comment and see how fast you get banned.

------
RIMR
This seems unsurprising. People with dark triad traits tend to more easily
deviate from reality based on the stimulus they receive, making them much more
receptive to extremist propaganda of any political leaning.

~~~
solinent
> People with dark triad traits tend to more easily deviate from reality based
> on the stimulus they receive

Maybe I'm a narcissist, but is this a scientific statement? How can you
falsify it? You'd run into some pretty angry philosophers.

