Gutenberg Open Science: Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic : comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8639

Full metadata record

DC Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Heller, Ayline	-
dc.contributor.author	Decker, Oliver	-
dc.contributor.author	Clemens, Vera	-
dc.contributor.author	Fegert, Jörg M.	-
dc.contributor.author	Heiner, Scarlett	-
dc.contributor.author	Brähler, Elmar	-
dc.contributor.author	Schmidt, Peter	-
dc.date.accessioned	2023-01-25T11:16:39Z	-
dc.date.available	2023-01-25T11:16:39Z	-
dc.date.issued	2022	-
dc.identifier.uri	https://openscience.ub.uni-mainz.de/handle/20.500.12030/8655	-
dc.description.abstract	Modern theories of authoritarianism have stressed the importance of threat to the expression of authoritarian attitudes and intolerance. Arguably, authoritarian tendencies may have increased during COVID-19 pandemic, a major threat to life and security. One issue arising when comparing mean scores is that of measurement invariance. Meaningful comparisons are only possible, if latent constructs are similar between groups and/or across time. This prerequisite is rarely ever tested in research on authoritarianism. In this study, we aim to analyze the short scale for authoritarianism KSA-3 by investigating its measurement invariance on two levels (three first-order and one second-order factors) and latent mean changes using two German representative samples (N = 4,905). Specifically, we look at differences before and during the pandemic (2017 vs. 2020). While measurement invariance holds across both levels in all conditions, we find a decrease in latent means in 2020, contrary to expectations and established theories. Moreover, latent means differ with regard to gender, education, and east–west Germany. We conclude that analyses of latent means and measurement invariance instead of mean comparisons with composites should become the standard. Future studies should focus on threat as a moderator between authoritarianism and intolerance, and on possible interactions with context variables.	en_GB
dc.description.sponsorship	Gefördert durch die Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 491381577	de
dc.language.iso	eng	de
dc.rights	CC BY	*
dc.rights.uri	https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/	*
dc.subject.ddc	610 Medizin	de_DE
dc.subject.ddc	610 Medical sciences	en_GB
dc.title	Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic : comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education	en_GB
dc.type	Zeitschriftenaufsatz	de
dc.identifier.doi	http://doi.org/10.25358/openscience-8639	-
jgu.type.dinitype	article	en_GB
jgu.type.version	Published version	de
jgu.type.resource	Text	de
jgu.organisation.department	FB 04 Medizin	de
jgu.organisation.number	2700	-
jgu.organisation.name	Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz	-
jgu.rights.accessrights	openAccess	-
jgu.journal.title	Frontiers in psychology	de
jgu.journal.volume	13	de
jgu.pages.alternative	941466	de
jgu.publisher.year	2022	-
jgu.publisher.name	Frontiers Research Foundation	de
jgu.publisher.place	Lausanne	de
jgu.publisher.issn	1664-1078	de
jgu.organisation.place	Mainz	-
jgu.subject.ddccode	610	de
jgu.publisher.doi	10.3389/fpsyg.2022.941466	de
jgu.organisation.ror	https://ror.org/023b0x485	-
jgu.subject.dfg	Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften	de
Appears in collections:	DFG-491381577-G

Files in This Item:

	File	Description	Size	Format
	changes_in_authoritarianism_b-20230124115503259.pdf		488.74 kB	Adobe PDF	View/Open

Show simple item record