Graduation Date
Fall 2020
Document Type
Thesis
Program
Master of Arts degree with a major in Psychology, option Academic Research
Committee Chair Name
Amber Gaffney
Committee Chair Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Second Committee Member Name
Maria Iturbide
Second Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Third Committee Member Name
Brandilynn Villarreal
Third Committee Member Affiliation
HSU Faculty or Staff
Subject Categories
Psychology
Abstract
Extremist governments and regimes have risen to power throughout history and the 2016 U.S. presidential election of Donald Trump raised concerns amongst scholars and politicians that the U.S. government is trending in this direction. Arguably questionable actions conducted by the Trump administration, such as the “Muslim Ban” or the inhumane treatment of migrants at the U.S. border, can be considered extremist in nature and at minimum they mimic the actions of extremist governments. What drives a populace to support extremist governments, particularly a populace raised in democracy? Previous literature and research suggests that under conditions of uncertainty, people are motivated to reduce that uncertainty, often by identifying with a group. Groups that offer members a blueprint on how to think, behave, and feel are particularly attractive for uncertainty reduction. Extremist groups also embody these traits and may thus exploit conditions of uncertainty to gain support. Therefore, people, when experiencing uncertainty, should be motivated to support an extremist government. The current experiment gathered (N = 169) responses in an online setting, and manipulated participants’ uncertainty to examine support for extremist and democratic governments. Results found that under conditions of high uncertainty, people did not display more support of an extremist government in comparison to a democratic government. However, post-hoc analyses find that self-reported uncertainty positively predicted support for an extremist government. Thus, the results of this research may have important implications for research on uncertainty-identity theory and uncertainty’s influence on support for extremism.
Citation Style
APA
Recommended Citation
Estrada, Dennis, "Uncertainty and support for extremist governments" (2020). Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects. 440.
https://digitalcommons.humboldt.edu/etd/440