Songs and flags: Concern for Covid-19 and submission to authority

Stefano Passini

doi:10.1016/j.paid.2021.111251

Songs and flags: Concern for Covid-19 and submission to authority

Pers Individ Dif. 2022 Feb:185:111251. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2021.111251. Epub 2021 Sep 10.

Author

Stefano Passini¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Education Studies, University of Bologna, Via Filippo Re 6, 40126 Bologna, Italy.

Abstract

The literature on authoritarianism has shown that the perception of threat and social insecurity is connected to attitudes of submission to authority and a greater acceptance of freedom restraints. In the present research, the relationship between concerns for COVID-19 - measured in terms of the fear of personal and close to others exposure to COVID-19 - on authoritarianism was analysed in Italy while considering participants' basic values as a potential mediator. Results on 406 participants show high mean values on concerns for COVID-19 experienced during the lockdown phase. As hypothesized, such concerns are positively related to authoritarianism, and a mediation analysis showed that the link between these two variables can be explained by the relevance attributed to conservation values.

Keywords: Authoritarianism; COVID-19; Italy; Threat; Values.