When Authoritarians Protect the Earth—Authoritarian Submission and Proenvironmental Beliefs: A Pilot Study in Germany

Abstract

Previous research on the relation between right-wing authoritarianism and proenvironmental beliefs showed that higher levels of authoritarianism predicted weaker proenvironmental beliefs. While these findings are in line with the general idea of authoritarians being less ethical and generally socially problematic, there is also reason to assume that certain concepts of being authoritarian may relate to proenvironmental behavior. Given that in Germany political authorities have enforced proenvironmental behavior for more than a decade, it is argued that authoritarian submission—one dimension of right-wing authoritarianism—can relate to stronger environmental beliefs. The relation between right-wing authoritarianism's subcomponents and proenvironmental beliefs were thus examined in this pilot study. Results reveal that overall the relation between right-wing authoritarianism and proenvironmental beliefs was weak and negative. More importantly, however, a fine-grained analysis of right-wing authoritarianism's dimensions revealed that submission to authority related to stronger, instead of weaker, proenvironmental beliefs. This finding challenges the generality of the link between right-wing authoritarianism and weaker proenvironmental beliefs.