From autonomy to obedience, intolerance rises

Weighted share naming each group as unwanted neighbours, and the share counted socially conservative, by authoritarian child-rearing index. Each country counts once; the curves average across the 108.

Homosexuals (unwanted neighbour) Socially conservative Immigrants / foreign workers Different race

Takeaway: the homosexuals line and the social-conservatism line climb steeply from left to right; the racial and immigrant lines tilt up only gently — the steep rise is carried by the sexuality and social-conservatism measures.

Pooled across 108 countries, 1981–2023; each country contributes one estimate per authoritarian level, then countries are averaged equally. Per-level country counts range from 75 to 108. “Socially conservative” = mean of the homosexuality, abortion and divorce justifiability items at or below the scale midpoint. Source: World Values Survey / EVS, weighted by S017.

The disposition predicts social conservatism everywhere; the label does not

One dot per country. Horizontal: correlation of the authoritarian index with left–right self-placement. Vertical: its correlation with the social-conservatism index. Colored by region.

Takeaway: the cloud sits high on the vertical axis — authoritarian child-rearing predicts social conservatism almost everywhere — but is smeared across the horizontal one, because its tie to the left–right label is weak and inconsistent. Most dots lie above the diagonal.

Weighted within-country Pearson correlations, effective N from 400 to 14,055 per cell; cells below an effective N of 300 suppressed. Left–right available for 102 countries, social conservatism for all 108. Source: World Values Survey / EVS, weighted.

Approval of authoritarian rule climbs with the disposition

Mean approval of two non-democratic systems (1 = very bad to 4 = very good), by authoritarian child-rearing index, pooled across countries.

Strong leader (no parliament/elections) Army rule

Takeaway: both lines slope upward from the autonomy pole to the obedience pole — the obedience-minded approve of strong-man and army rule more than the autonomy-minded do, the army-rule line rising the more steeply of the two.

Pooled across countries with both items fielded; per-level country counts from 77 to 104. The two items are scored so higher means more pro-authoritarian; orientation verified by the monotonic army-rule anchor. Source: World Values Survey / EVS, weighted.