Autoriter vezetők, politikai kommunikáció, identitás és csoporttagság evolúciós pszichológiai szemszögből
Authoritarian Leaders, Political Communication, Personal Identity and Group Cohesion from the Point of View of Evolutionary Psychology

Summary/Abstract: This paper aims at revealing the inner logic of the divisive political rhetoric frequently employed by authoritarian leaders.This logic seems to rest on some evolutionarily developed proclivities of our species that helped our ancestors to effi cientlyorganize group living yet also make group members (i.e. voters) susceptible to this damaging kind of rhetoric and willing toaccept authoritarian leadership. The paper also discusses that the perception of threats increases group coherence, how thismechanism may be exploited by some authoritarian leaders to infl uence group members and how online technologies facilitatedivisive communication. Touching on some aspects of the genetic and neural background of political beliefs, I also try to showhow our inclination to resist to change our fundamental beliefs contributes to safeguarding one’s identity and, consequently,encourages authoritarian leaders to turn to divisive rhetoric.

• Details
• Contents