To explore the links between authoritarian personality traits and welfare chauvinism by controlling for a host of alternative explanations while also investigating whether these links are additive or interacting with other triggering variables. Using the online survey platform Qualtrics, a stratified sample of 1,010 respondents in Germany was recruited in January 2019. Authoritarian personality is operationalized by applying the fourfold child-rearing scale pioneered by Feldman and Stenner. Findings indicate that authoritarianism has an independent, additive effect on welfare chauvinism, but cultural and economic threats do not systematically mediate the effect of authoritarianism on welfare chauvinism. Submissive authoritarianism is significantly linked to a desire to disentitle immigrants from using welfare benefits.
Crepaz, M.M.L. (2020), Coveting Uniformity in a Diverse World: The Authoritarian Roots of Welfare Chauvinism in Postmigration Crisis Germany. Social Science Quarterly, 101: 1255-1270. https://doi.org/10.1111/ssqu.12798
