Amergent

 Why you should avoid voting for people who appear to be strong leaders Social dominance orientation (SDO) is a personality trait that predicts social and political attitudes. People with high SDO prefer and support social hierarchies in which some groups dominate others. Understanding SDO can help us see why some people support authoritarianism and hierarchical structures in society. Those with high SDO believe that society should be structured in a way where some groups are superior to others. Consequently they also think it is acceptable for these dominant groups to have more power and resources concomitant with carrying greater responsibilities whether this setup benefits society as a whole or not. The certainties of a social hierarchy are the main objective. People with high SDO tend to exhibit certain attitudes and behaviours. They prefer social systems where groups are ranked, with some at the top and others at the bottom. They believe that inequality is natural and sometime...

The psychology behind the term authoritarianism. Authoritarianism is a term often used to describe systems of governance or personality types where strict obedience to authority is emphasised, often at the expense of personal freedom and democratic principles. This article explores what authoritarianism is, the psychology behind it, and its impact on society. Notably, all the researchers agree on one thing: A rise in authoritarianism never ends well and often ends disastrously for everyone - those who support it the most strongly tend to find out that it was no more in their best interests than the minorities who are scapegoated. This will be explored further in the next article on social dominance personality among leaders and its relationship to the dark heart of authoritarianism. The concept of authoritarianism gained significant attention after World War II when two social scientists, Theodor Adorno and Else Frenkel-Brunswik, sought to understand the horrors perpetrated by the Nazi...

  The world has become increasingly complex in the twentieth century and even more so in the first quarter of the twenty first. How we deal with complexity both emotionally and cognitively can impact on how we deal with the factual world around us. It can affect our decision-making and make us vulnerable to abuses of power. There are many folk who just don’t seem ready to accept that the world is complex, and they turn to alternative simplistic stories that have no basis in reality. Marketers and politicians play on our need for simplicity, but if you know their tricks you can be forewarned. Complexity accounts for the tendency to accept simple but false narratives instead of continuing the analysis until a robust solution is found. The reasons for this are listed below. This effect is in addition to the most basic tendency to adopt a reassuring belief and then rationalise it. The two tendencies probably overlap - an existing simple and reassuring belief can function as an emotiona...