0000000001280657

AUTHOR

Diego Avendaño

Do as the Romans do: On the authoritarian roots of pseudoscience

Recent research highlights the implications of group dynamics in the acceptance and promotion of misconceptions, particularly in relation to the identity-protective attitudes that boost polarisation over scientific information. In this study, we successfully test a mediational model between right-wing authoritarianism and pseudoscientific beliefs. First, we carry out a comprehensive literature review on the socio-political background of pseudoscientific beliefs. Second, we conduct two studies (n=1189 and n=1097) to confirm our working hypotheses: H1 – intercorrelation between pseudoscientific beliefs, authoritarianism and three axioms (reward for application, religiosity and fate control); …

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Opening the can of worms: A comprehensive examination of authoritarianism

Abstract We carry out an exhaustive analysis of both right-wing and left-wing forms of authoritarianism in order to assess the specific predictors of these illiberal agendas. Firstly, we conduct a literature review on authoritarianism as a multidimensional psychological construct, with emphasis on its controversial links to the political spectrum, religion, and economic conservatism. Moreover, we review its potential associations with social axioms, as an interesting psychological framework to aid understanding of authoritarian attitudes. We extract three working hypotheses from this literature review, all successfully tested in two empirical studies (n = 1097 and n = 1102). Our results sug…

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Spanish Adaptation of the Left-Wing Authoritarianism Index

Notwithstanding long-simmering controversies around the construct, several studies have gathered consistent evidence of authoritarian attitudes among left-wing voters and activists. Recently, Costello et al. (Clarifying the structure and nature of left-wing authoritarianism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2021) validated, in the English-speaking context, a three-factor scale to measure left-wing authoritarianism, as well as two shortened versions of the same scale (Costello & Patrick, Development and initial validation of two brief measures of left-wing authoritarianism: A machine learning approach, 2021; composed of 39, 25 and 13 items, respectively). In this article, we use…

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Revised and short versions of the pseudoscientific belief scale

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: Fasce, A, Avendaño, D, Adrián‐Ventura, J. Revised and short versions of the pseudoscientific belief scale. Appl Cognit Psychol. 2021; 1– 5, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/acp.3811. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. In this article, we develop the revised and short versions of the pseudoscientific belief scale through two empirical studies (N = 4154). This revision is motivated by the excessive length of the scale, as well as by consistent observations of poor item loadings across several studies…

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Supplementary_Material – Supplemental material for Do as the Romans do: On the authoritarian roots of pseudoscience

Supplemental material, Supplementary_Material for Do as the Romans do: On the authoritarian roots of pseudoscience by Angelo Fasce, Jesús Adrián-Ventura and Diego Avendaño in Public Understanding of Science

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