Psychological profile of alt-right supporters

[adrina]

source

Recently, psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily recruited members of the alt-right (a.k.a. the “alternative right,” the catchall political identity of white nationalists) to participate in a study to build the first psychological profile of their movement. The results, which were released on August 9, are just in working paper form, and have yet to be peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.

A lot of the findings align with what we intuit about the alt-right: This group is supportive of social hierarchies that favor whites at the top. It’s distrustful of mainstream media and strongly opposed to Black Lives Matter. Respondents were highly supportive of statements like, “There are good reasons to have organizations that look out for the interests of white people.” And when they look at other groups — like black Americans, Muslims, feminists, and journalists — they’re willing to admit they see these people as “less evolved.”

One of the starkest, darkest findings in the survey comes from a simple question: How evolved do you think other people are? Kteily, the co-author on this paper, pioneered this new and disturbing way to measure dehumanization — the tendency to see others as being less than human. He simply shows study participants the following (scientifically inaccurate) image of a human ancestor slowly learning how to stand on two legs and become fully human. Participants are asked to rate where certain groups fall on this scale from 0 to 100. Zero is not human at all; 100 is fully human.

On average, alt-righters saw other groups as hunched-over proto-humans. On average, they rated Muslims at a 55.4 (again, out of 100), Democrats at 60.4, black people at 64.7, Mexicans at 67.7, journalists at 58.6, Jews at 73, and feminists at 57. These groups appear as subhumans to those taking the survey. And what about white people? They were scored at a noble 91.8.

https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5PbRYPmu6DU3xdVCWdfjUBuVzBE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9054793/Screen_Shot_2017_08_15_at_2.19.58_PM.png

The bullet points:

• The alt-right scores high on dehumanization measures
• The alt-right has high support for groups that support and work for the benefit of white people
• The alt-right is more willing to express prejudice toward black people
• Alt-righters are willing to report their own aggressive behavior
• Personality traits that frequently show up among alt-righters: authoritarianism and Machiavellianism
• Alt-righters aren’t particularly socially isolated or worried about the economy

In their preliminary analysis, Forscher and Kteily found that willingness to express prejudice against black people was correlated with harassing behavior. “If we can change the motivation to express prejudice, maybe that gives us a way to prevent aggression,” they say. Again, this is all early work. Forscher hopes to track some of these survey participants over the coming months and years, and see if they remain adhered to the alt-right. Or if not, he hopes to learn what caused them to ditch the worldview. “When we’re thinking about current events, our thinking should be grounded in evidence rather than intuition,” he says. “This provides some evidence. It’s definitely not the be-all and end-all.”

Interesting.

 

[BB4evah]

Vox, AGAIN?

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/e8/ab/ef/e8abef7ce2208393a41a0f870c82d07f--funny-memes-funny-pics.jpg

 

[RobDownSouth]

I wonder where Haitians would rank on that scale. I know that the far-right wingers here don't consider them to be human.

 

[adrina]

It's like fishing.


And the points are most likely pretty accurate.


Win win.

 

[MGurkus]

I wonder where Haitians would rank on that scale. I know that the far-right wingers here don't consider them to be human.

In his defense, he only meant it because they are poor and less evolved.

 

[Freudian_Slit]

It's like fishing.


And the points are most likely pretty accurate.


Win win.

It's a sickness that's been with us for far longer than the term "alt-right," and sadly it'll probably be with us for quite some time.

 

[Phelia]

The National Review, of all places, ran a fabulous writeup of the pathetic and cowardly truth of the alt right. Bitter, stupid, irrelevant losers searching for an excuse. Not that it's particularly insightful. Look at AJ, Ish, eyer, que, miles, vetteman, vatass, bert. God, it's plain as day.

A great many of these young men have an interest in evolutionary psychology and evolutionary sociology — they like to think of themselves as “alpha males,” as though they were living in a chimpanzee troop — but it never occurs to them to consider their own status as rejects and failed men in that context. Online fantasy lives notwithstanding, random girls do not want to have sex with them. How do we know this? Because they are carrying tiki torches in a giant dork parade in Charlottesville. There’s no prom queen waiting at home. If we credit their own sociobiological model, they are the superfluous males who would have been discarded, along with their genetic material, by the pitiless state of nature. The fantasy of proving that they are something else is why they dream of violence and confrontation. They are the products of the soft liberal-democratic society they hold in contempt — and upon which they depend, utterly. James Alex Fields Jr. is angry at the world, and angry at his mother, probably for the same reason.

Angry White Boys

What's sadder to me is those who refuse to see and condemn it, like Colonel Hogan.

 

[irksomesauce]

It's always a gas to read cold-blooded baby killers speak of any others' psychological profile than theirs.

 

[dan_c00000]

It's always a gas to read cold-blooded baby killers speak of any others' psychological profile than theirs.

It's always funny to read racist cowards on the internet who'll whine and bitch about not being racist while they carry around a Nazi flag.

 

[Freudian_Slit]

It's always a gas to read cold-blooded baby killers speak of any others' psychological profile than theirs.

https://41dcdfcd4dea0e5aba20-931851ca4d0d7cdafe33022cf8264a37.ssl.cf1.rackcdn.com/15790324_the-dark-anatomy-of-a-coat-hanger-abortion_c6d72ae8_m.jpg?bg=E7CFCA

 

[renard_ruse]

There is no such thing as so-called "alt right" Rory. Nice try though.

You do know that Stalin, Hitler, and other dictators throughout history claimed their opponents were mentally ill? No surprise you would do the same thing.

 

[renard_ruse]

A great many of these young men have an interest in evolutionary psychology and evolutionary sociology — they like to think of themselves as “alpha males,” as though they were living in a chimpanzee troop — but it never occurs to them to consider their own status as rejects and failed men in that context. Online fantasy lives notwithstanding, random girls do not want to have sex with them...

I don't know, if you mean skinheads or whatever, my friend back in the day was a pro-white skin. He was the most promiscious and sexually succesful guy I've personally known. He did practically have to beat them off with a stick. Of course that was back in the 90s mostly. Maybe times have changed, but I doubt it.

There are about 10% of guys who have to fight off the opposite sex. The other 90% have to generally make the advances. Its got little to do with politics.

 

[RobDownSouth]

It's always funny to read racist cowards on the internet who'll whine and bitch about not being racist while they carry around a Nazi flag.

The Nazis are finding out that their brave chest-thumpin' behind the safety of a computer screen doesn't translate well in the real world. People show up to counter-protest and the Nazis don't have the numbers (can't make "real life alts" to puff up their numbers can they?)

 

[renard_ruse]

It's always funny to read racist cowards on the internet who'll whine and bitch about not being racist while they carry around a Nazi flag.

Indeed they are not since its not possible for a white to be "racist" in the 21st century.

You have to come from a group which has "da powah" to be "racist" and obviously whites don't. So, again, YOU FAIL, Rory poo!

 

[renard_ruse]

The Nazis are finding out that their brave chest-thumpin' behind the safety of a computer screen doesn't translate well in the real world. People show up to counter-protest and the Nazis don't have the numbers (can't make "real life alts" to puff up their numbers can they?)

Lol. The alt left goons showed up to beat up and attack the so-called "nazi's" and it was one of them who ended up dead. I mean, no defense of violence, but seriously, these folks are literally retarded. They show up to attack people and they get the worst end of it.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

There is no such thing as so-called "alt right" Rory. Nice try though.

What happens when the Alt-Right calls itself Alt-Right?

https://media.tenor.com/images/f5a9e888726ee0d9d7c36181d6280f3d/tenor.gif

I don't know, if you mean skinheads or whatever, my friend back in the day was a pro-white skin. He was the most promiscious and sexually succesful dude I've personally known. He did practically have to beat them off with a stick. Of course that was back in the 90s mostly. Maybe times have changed, but I doubt it.

What happened to him? Is he still your friend? Is he still living? Did he catch an STD?

Did he try to slide some of his vagina magnet game off on you?

Indeed they are not since its not possible for a white to be "racist" in the 21st century.

So you're sayin' it was possible in the 20th century?

You have to come from a group which has "da powah" to be "racist" and obviously whites don't. So, again, YOU FAIL, Rory poo!

You sayin' you don't have "da powah?"

How do you get "da powah?" If you get it, what are you gonna do with "da powah?" Gonna powah up something? Like a lamp?

Lol. The alt left goons showed up

Hey now. Logic board time, Renny Poo!

If there's no such thing as alt-right, then there's no such thing as alt-left!

 

[KimGordon67]

I don't have the energy to check the source Adrina ... did they run the 'evolved' questions with any other groups? I'd be genuinely interested to know if that perspective is specific to the alt-right (which I think it probably is).

source









https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/5PbRYPmu6DU3xdVCWdfjUBuVzBE=/800x0/filters:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9054793/Screen_Shot_2017_08_15_at_2.19.58_PM.png

The bullet points:

• The alt-right scores high on dehumanization measures
• The alt-right has high support for groups that support and work for the benefit of white people
• The alt-right is more willing to express prejudice toward black people
• Alt-righters are willing to report their own aggressive behavior
• Personality traits that frequently show up among alt-righters: authoritarianism and Machiavellianism
• Alt-righters aren’t particularly socially isolated or worried about the economy

Interesting.

 

[KimGordon67]

So the alt-right only hit other people ... is that right? Because that's fairly counter to everything I've read.

Lol. The alt left goons showed up to beat up and attack the so-called "nazi's" and it was one of them who ended up dead. I mean, no defense of violence, but seriously, these folks are literally retarded. They show up to attack people and they get the worst end of it.

 

[OldJourno]

How many people are in the "alt-right"?

What is the alt-right?

 

[KimGordon67]

How many people are in the "alt-right"?

What is the alt-right?

The actual research is here: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/c9uvw

There'll be a definition in there somewhere. It seems the participants were self-identified though.

There's also a handy Wikipedia entry defining 'alt-right'.

It's unlikely to be a question in the national census (if the US even has a national census), so numbers would be tricky.

 

[OldJourno]

The actual research is here: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/c9uvw

There'll be a definition in there somewhere. It seems the participants were self-identified though.

There's also a handy Wikipedia entry defining 'alt-right'.

It's unlikely to be a question in the national census (if the US even has a national census), so numbers would be tricky.

I picked up somewhere today that the alt-right consisted of skinheads and others of their ilk, such as neo-Nazis.
I've come to realize that "conservative" and "right-wing" are two very different things.

 

[OldJourno]

And as far as that goes, I'll bet the number of people who are alt-right skinheads is not more than 100,000.

 

[KimGordon67]

I picked up somewhere today that the alt-right consisted of skinheads and others of their ilk, such as neo-Nazis.
I've come to realize that "conservative" and "right-wing" are two very different things.

I think it's a little more complex than that.

 

[KimGordon67]

And as far as that goes, I'll bet the number of people who are alt-right skinheads is not more than 100,000.

'Skinheads' neither encompass all the alt-right, nor are all alt-right. Skinheads actually have a history that is a little more wide-ranging than that.

 

[KimGordon67]

There is no such thing as so-called "alt right" Rory. Nice try though.

You do know that Stalin, Hitler, and other dictators throughout history claimed their opponents were mentally ill? No surprise you would do the same thing.

If the alt-right call themselves alt-right, then I think there is such a thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_B._Spencer