Left-Wing Whites are Uniquely Averse to Dominant Leaders

Abstract: The prevailing view among scholars has been that the preference for dominant leaders is an idiosyncratic feature of right-wing individuals. However, it is unclear whether this inference is accurate given that prior research on the topic has focused on predominantly White samples. Analyzing data from the US and Western Europe, we find that left-wing Whites display stronger aversion to dominant leaders than others. Indeed, ethnic minorities across diverse ethnic and political backgrounds are closer to right-wing Whites on dominant leader preference than to left-wing Whites. Our work also provides empirical evidence, using both measurement-of-mediation and experimental mediation, that left-wing Whites’ relatively unique leadership preference is in part, explained by their higher levels of generalized trust. Taken together, these findings suggest that left-wing Whites’ leadership preferences should not be considered the “default” as they may not generalize to other groups, even within Western countries.

Keywords: Leader Preference; Trust; Political Orientation; Left-wing Whites; Ethnic Minorities