Personality & Political Discontent
From Rob Henderson comes this summary of “a recent paper titled ‘Beyond Populism: The Psychology of Status-Seeking and Extreme Political Discontent’” that “investigated whether the desire to obtain status underlies extreme political discontent.” Here’s Henderson’s take away:
Psychologically, what seems to emerge here are two distinct approaches to navigating social hierarchies.
The first is dominance-oriented status seeking (DOSS). Dominance is the drive to rise to the top of the hierarchy through force and intimidation.
The second approach is the one populists favor: They are discontent with the current system. But, the researchers suggest, “their alternative political vision is not one in which they personally are placed at the top of the hierarchy. Rather, they seek to promote others to a top position that they believe will selectively benefit them.”
Populists don’t want to climb the social hierarchy themselves. They would prefer to appoint someone to a position of power who would then confer benefits to them.
In contrast, dominance-oriented status seekers are eager to climb up the hierarchy. They don’t want a strong leader. This is why, according to the researchers, they “engage in more active forms of discontent” and “are fueled by a personal craving for power.”
In Shakespeare’s tragedy, the titular character was worried about “lean” men. Who is leaner—supporters of populism or dominance-oriented status seekers?
Populists want to appoint a Caesar-like figure to be in charge.
Dominance-oriented status seekers (DOSS) want to take power for themselves. And are willing to inflict violence to obtain it.
The populists want a strong leader to liberate them from the dominance-oriented status seekers and rule according to the populists’ preferences.
The dominance-oriented status seekers want to be liberated from the population and strong leaders, preferring to rule according to their own preferences.