Research on the psychological foundations of climate change denial have highlighted the important role of two ideological attitudes: Social dominance orientation (SDO) and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). People who endorse SDO want society to be structured hierarchically, with some groups at the top dominating over ‘lower status’ social groups, who are relegated to the bottom of the social hierarchy [1]. Right-wing authoritarians are those who prefer to conform to group norms and the orders of authority figures, while punishing those who do not conform [2]. SDO and RWA were initially developed to help explain attitudes towards social groups, with both Social Dominants and Authoritarians showing a preference for groups of people similar to themselves, and hostility towards those who are different [3].

However, the ideological attitudes broaden to predict attitudes towards the environment. Specifically, Social Dominants are more likely to oppose environmental policies [4], support environmental exploitation [5, 6], and deny climate change and its human causes [7–11]. Similarly, Authoritarians are less concerned about the environment [12], perceive climate change as less of a risk [13], and support punishing environmental activists—and not polluters [14].

While the research to date demonstrates the importance of SDO and RWA in understanding people’s attitudes and actions towards the environment, the extant literature has predominantly relied on cross-sectional analyses to examine this association. In one exception to this, Stanley, Wilson and Milfont [15] examined the associations between endorsement of RWA, SDO and environmentalism over time using a student sample surveyed twice over five months. They found that RWA, and not SDO, predicts an increase in climate change denial, while neither variable is related to changes in pro-environmental attitudes over time. We expand on Stanley et al.’s study by using a large, national probability sample spanning five years to examine how these variables relate over time in the general population.

The association between SDO, RWA and environmentalism

Duckitt’s [3] dual-process model proposes that SDO and RWA are separate but interrelated, and together predict attitudes towards different social groups. The model has been widely used to understand intergroup relations, and shows the pathways from an individuals’ personality characteristics and worldviews to SDO and RWA and, in turn, favourability toward the ingroup and hostility toward outgroups. On the surface, SDO appears to be of interest exclusively to research on intergroup relations and, indeed, items in the SDO scale exclusively frame hierarchies based on intergroup relations.

However, Pratto et al. [4] present possibly the first analysis of the relationship between SDO and attitudes towards issues that are not solely focused on social groups, including attitudes towards environmental policies. They predicted that SDO would correlate with opposition to any policy that reduces inequality between humans and other species. Indeed, they found modest negative correlations between SDO and support for environmental policy. This is perhaps the first hint that for those endorsing SDO, nature might be another ‘outgroup’ to assert dominance over.

This idea of human dominance over nature is evident in anthropocentric depictions of our relationship with the natural environment, a belief that is at the core of the dominant social paradigm (DSP) [16]. The DSP indexes endorsement of ideological systems favouring growth and prosperity. Individuals invested in the DSP position themselves to dominate and exploit the environment, and are unmoved by appeals to protect resources [17]. Milfont et al. [10] argue that Social Dominants’ propensity for environmental exploitation exists “because SDO promotes human hierarchical dominance over nature” (p. 1127).

While a preference for dominance over nature could underlie Social Dominants’ environmental attitudes, there is also research to suggest the SDO–environmentalism link can instead be explained by support for using natural resources as a means to gain dominance over others. Specifically, Milfont and Sibley’s [5] hierarchy enforcement hypothesis of environmental exploitation claims that Social Dominants will support environmental exploitation only when this serves to enhance the gap between dominant and subordinate social groups. They showed that SDO predicts support for an environmentally hazardous mine only when the social elite gain disproportionate access to the resources this produces. Jackson et al. [6] similarly demonstrated that SDO predicts support for a mining operation unconditional of the environmental impact—but only when the ingroup (in this case, their own country) is set to gain (Study 2). Additionally, Social Dominants are happy to position a manufacturing plant that poses a serious risk to the environment in economically disadvantaged areas (Study 3). Therefore, acceptance of environmental exploitation may be motivated by the desire to dominate over other social groups by making use of nature, rather than the desire to dominate over the natural world itself.

Irrespective of why the relationship exists, a growing number of studies have provided evidence for the association between SDO and environmentalism, which paint a somewhat dismal picture for climate change mitigation. Social Dominants are less likely to believe in climate change and its human causes [7–10], prompting researchers to urge caution not to portray environmental action as threatening to the social hierarchy [7]. Milfont et al. [10] showed that Social Dominants are less concerned about the environment (Study 1), while also more accepting of exploitation of natural resources (Study 3). Moreover, greater average country-level SDO is associated with poorer environmental performance (Study 2). Social Dominants are more supportive of making use of natural resources, and hold generally more negative attitudes towards the environment [18]. Across nations, the SDO-environmentalism link is small but robust, with the association strengthened in areas with greater social inequality [11].

Alongside this research on SDO, Peterson, Doty and Winter [14] similarly found that RWA was related to statements that conceptualise environmental issues as overstated, environmental action as detrimental to the country, and environmentalists as deserving of punishment. Hoffarth and Hodson [19] similarly showed that Authoritarians view environmentalists as posing a threat to society, tradition, and the economy. Furthermore, and perhaps consistent with their denial of climate change [15, 19], Authoritarians are less likely to assume responsibility for acting on global warming, or intention to mitigate the problem [20].

Schultz and Stone [12] showed that RWA and environmentalism evidence a strong, negative relationship. Furthermore, they found both RWA and environmentalism explained unique variance in support for a controversial power plant. They interpret this association as due to the authoritarian preference for economic growth, with natural resources proving a useful avenue for income. Whilst an interest in conservation would prohibit excessive use of natural resources, Authoritarians prioritize growth and therefore dismiss environmental concerns. However, Reese [21] found that the dimensions of RWA differentially predict pro-environmental attitudes: authoritarian submission predicts greater pro-environmentalism, authoritarian aggression predicts lower pro-environmentalism, whilst the preference for tradition is unrelated.

Conclusions about why the relationships exist between these ideological attitudes and environmentalism (such as that it is motivated by a desire for dominance over nature, or to use nature to get ahead in the case of SDO, or the preference for tradition or authoritarian aggression for RWA) imply a directional model where one’s level of SDO or RWA influences environmental attitudes. Whilst this implied direction is consistent with theoretical predictions of how ideology relates to attitudes over time [3], almost all research to date on the ideology–environmentalism link has been cross-sectional in nature. It is therefore inappropriate to draw comments on the direction of any temporal association before more longitudinal research has been conducted.

Despite some positive evidence for the relationship between RWA and environmentalism, research that includes SDO tends to have the effect of RWA reduce or disappear. For example, Milfont et al. [10] showed that SDO accounts for unique variance in environmental attitudes over and above RWA, indicating again that SDO is the stronger predictor. Consistent with these findings, Häkkinen and Akrami [9] did not find evidence of a RWA–environmentalism link. Of the ideological variables included in their study, SDO was the strongest predictor of climate change denial, whilst RWA was not a significant predictor (Studies 1 and 2). However, both Schultz and Stone [12] and Peterson et al. [14] found evidence for the RWA–environmentalism link while examining environmental issues with RWA as the only ideological correlate. Taken together, these findings suggest that perhaps the RWA–environmentalism relationship is driven by the Authoritarian tie with SDO (the shared variance indicated by the weak correlation typically found between SDO and RWA [22]).

Synthesizing research to date that relates these ideological attitudes to environmentalism, Stanley and Wilson [23] demonstrated that SDO and RWA predict lower environmentalism both together and independently. They explored the possibility that the shared variance between SDO and RWA is driving the RWA–environmentalism link by meta-analysing regression coefficients to assess the independent contribution of each ideology in predicting environmentalism. They showed that, contrary to the pattern of results implied by limited empirical evidence presented here, each ideological attitude has a comparable unique association with environmentalism. However, they also show that the association between SDO and environmentalism is stronger among general population samples than when the same relationship is examined using student samples. This finding could explain the non-significant longitudinal path from SDO at time one to environmentalism at time two in Stanley et al.’s [15] study, which relied on a student sample.

Previous research relying on cross-sectional data therefore suggests that both SDO and RWA are key variables in the ideology–environmentalism link, but that the strengths of these associations depends on the sample type. As stated earlier, Stanley et al. [15] were the first to examine this relationship longitudinally, demonstrating that RWA predicted climate change denial most strongly over time, while SDO was not a significant predictor. As this research drew from a student sample, the results are therefore consistent with Stanley and Wilson’s [23] findings that SDO exhibits a weaker association with environment-relevant variables in these samples. The present study advances this research by examining the impact of SDO and RWA on environment-related attitudes in a general population sample, spanning five years.