Donald Trumps presidency included many transgressive behaviors which were rationalized by his followers. A study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology explores the roles of group prototypicality and identity advancement in how supporters downplayed and accepted Trumps harmful behaviors.
People in political leadership have a lot of power and have the potential to greatly affect the social, economic, and social state of the country and even the entire world. When leaders partake in transgressive behavior that violates social, moral, or legal norms, the consequences can be grave. Unfortunately, leaders like Donald Trump can maintain support from their base despite their harmful behaviors.
Previous research supports this and shows leniency from their followers. This study seeks to further this research by understanding the roles of identity advancement and group prototypicality in this leniency.
Identity advancement refers to the belief that a politician stands up for Americans, acts as a champion for Americans, promotes the interests of Americans, and has the best interests of Americans at heart. Group prototypicality, on the other hand, refers to the belief that a politician represents what is characteristic of Americans, is typical of Americans, and stands for what Americans have in common.
Researcher Ben Davies and his colleagues utilized a longitudinal study that employed 3 waves. Wave 1 occurred a week before the 2020 election, wave 2 occurred 2 days after the initial wave, and wave 3 occurred the day after Joe Bidens inauguration. Wave 1 included 200 Republicans, wave 2 retained 175 participants, and wave 3 retained 102 participants. Wave 1 assessed initial perceptions of Trump, demographics, prototypicality, and identity advancement. Wave 2 assessed the perceived ethicalness of transgressive behavior when committed by Trump or not committed by Trump. Wave 3 assessed prototypicality and identity advancement following Trump leaving office and being replaced by Biden.
Results showed that Republicans downplayed Trumps unethical behavior, but this was related to his identity advancement and not related to his group prototypicality. Trump losing the election did not increase his followers beliefs that he behaved unethically or decrease their perception of his group prototypicality or identity advancement. Additionally, participants did perceive Trumps behavior as less unethical than the same behaviors in a neutral subject. This was significant for all 3 behaviors studied including nepotism, sharing of false information, and abuse of power.
The extent to which group members downplay the transgressive behavior of their leader has worrying implications for leadership, the researchers said. Ultimately, it appears that devout followers are willing to explain away even the most serious breaches of law and morality by their leaders. As the US Capitol riots illustrate, the rationalization of a leaders transgressive behavior and continued support for them can culminate in serious attacks on democracy and social order.
This study made important progress in understanding how base followers justify and interpret transgressive behavior. Despite this, it has limitations. This study focuses solely on Donald Trump, a very controversial politician. Arguably, there has never been a more divisive president in the United States. These results would potentially not generalize using a different politician. Additionally, very salient events occurred between waves 2 and 3, including the Capitol riots and attempt to overturn the election, which is difficult to control for.
As well as addressing these limitations, future studies should also explore how to mitigate the support of transgressive leaders, and how their behavior can be reframed in a way that minimizes its downplaying among supporters, the researchers said. One potential avenue is to explore how de-platforming such transgressive leaders limits their ability to reframe their behavior in a desired light.
The study, Donald Trump and the rationalization of transgressive behavior: The role of group prototypicality and identity advancement, was authored by Ben Davies, Carola Leicht, and Dominic Abrams.
Link:
- Judge blocks Texas bill aimed at preventing social media companies from deplatforming people based on their ... - AOL - February 25th, 2024
- Introducing FIRE's Campus Deplatforming Database | The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression - Foundation for Individual Rights in Education - February 9th, 2024
- Alex Jones To Tucker Carlson: My Sin Was Decompartmentalizing The American Population - RealClearPolitics - December 11th, 2023
- Does 'deplatforming' work to curb hate speech and calls for ... - October 16th, 2023
- Weighing the Value and Risks of Deplatforming GNET - October 16th, 2023
- TIMELINE: Trump reinstated from 'permanent' social media bans, but will that last? - WCYB - March 31st, 2023
- Twitter Found Trump Didn't Violate Policy, But Banned Him Anyway - December 28th, 2022
- Social media misogyny: The new way Andrew Tate brought us the same old hate - December 28th, 2022
- Google Pays Sharath Bulusu: Well-meaning regulation will help market mature - The Indian Express - December 28th, 2022
- WordPress discussed deplatforming The New York Post after Hunter Biden ... - December 20th, 2022
- App Store 'Gatekeepers' Urged To Deplatform "Dangerous" Twitter Itself - December 12th, 2022
- FACT CHECK: Did Elon Musk Call Twitter Users Upset By Trumps ... - December 12th, 2022
- 'Deplatforming the President': Twitter Files Part 3 reveals events that led to removal of Donald Trump - Business Today - December 12th, 2022
- Twitter Files Part 2: Top Twitter execs interfered with US election before banning Donald Trump - msnNOW - December 12th, 2022
- Conservatives Are Mad Kanye Is Being Censored for Antisemitism ... - November 25th, 2022
- Chronicles Magazine : A Magazine of American Culture - November 17th, 2022
- Amazon accused of absurd and unacceptable censorship after book ... - November 17th, 2022
- PayPal's ideological deplatforming spurs proposed UK amendment to stop ... - November 17th, 2022
- Andrew Tates popularity decreases following deplatforming from social ... - November 7th, 2022
- This is for people who think deplatforming doesn't work - November 7th, 2022
- 4 Great Email Templates For Leaving Your Job - Jobbio Journal - October 31st, 2022
- What is Social Media? - TechTarget - October 31st, 2022
- The dangers of deplatforming - October 31st, 2022
- A Middlebury College Expert Explains the Ways Social Media Fuels Hate and How to Stop It - Seven Days - October 23rd, 2022
- Alex Jones ordered to pay $965 million after misinformation campaign targeting Sandy Hook families - Yahoo Finance - October 15th, 2022
- Kanye West Bank Ban Is An Indefensible Slippery Slope - OutKick - October 15th, 2022
- My New Paper: Donald Trump Should Remain Deplatformed from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube Despite the High Bar That Platforms Should Apply to the... - October 15th, 2022
- As Washington Post targets Catholic hospitals, every religious institution needs to build defenses - Washington Examiner - October 15th, 2022
- TMCs Derek OBrien steps in to give legitimacy to The Wires Meta joke that turned out to be a hoax - OpIndia - October 15th, 2022
- LeBron James' The Shop Will Not Air Episode Featuring Kanye West After Controversial Remarks By The Rapper - Yardbarker - October 15th, 2022
- Verizon Blacklists One America News Network Following ... - Breitbart - October 7th, 2022
- Conference aims to make trust and safety hot topics in computer science - The Stanford Daily - October 7th, 2022
- Sneako: Andrew Tate 2.0 Has Been Kicked Off YouTube | 2022 - The Latch - October 7th, 2022
- An Early Conservative Victory in the War on Big Tech | Opinion - Newsweek - October 7th, 2022
- Students respond to upcoming Congress to Campus event - Macalester College The Mac Weekly - October 7th, 2022
- Supreme Court Is Putting the Future of Section 230 Protections on Its Docket - Gizmodo - October 7th, 2022
- How to fundraise when the powerful want to stop you - Open Democracy - October 7th, 2022
- Piers Morgan Has Just Grilled Andrew Tate in a Live TV Interview - We Got This Covered - October 7th, 2022
- Kiwi Farms Is Down After Cloudflare Boots the Site as a Customer - September 29th, 2022
- How two Republicans in Florida are dominating the news - POLITICO - September 29th, 2022
- "White Psychodrama" and the culture wars: A self-reinforcing cycle, going nowhere - Salon - September 29th, 2022
- Regulating Misinformation on Twitter is a Problem, But There Are Bigger Ones on the Horizon - Tech Policy Press - September 29th, 2022
- It's Time to Stop Platforming the Big Lie Playbook - Tech Policy Press - September 29th, 2022
- Alex Jones' defamation trials show deplatforming's limits : NPR - September 21st, 2022
- Judges ruling against Twitter to protect the First Amendment did the opposite - MSNBC - September 21st, 2022
- Libs of TikTok vs. The Washington Post - Idaho State Journal - September 13th, 2022
- Journalist Glenn Greenwald scorches unholy alliance of government Democrats, corporate media and Big Tech - Fox News - September 13th, 2022
- Deplatforming Andrew Tate is the best way to deal with him - Los Angeles Loyolan - September 5th, 2022
- Andrew Tate joins Rumble after Big Tech deplatforming, will post ... - August 28th, 2022
- Pro-Masculine Influencer Andrew Tate Joins Rumble After Big Tech ... - August 28th, 2022
- NBC Journalist Who Attacked Libs Of TikTok Once Took Credit For ... - August 28th, 2022
- Web3 Will Make Or Break Social Media - Forbes - August 28th, 2022
- 2022 Tech Trends | The Future Today Institute - August 20th, 2022
- Commentary: Twitter fast becoming a thought-policed sandbox - The Herald Journal - August 20th, 2022
- What the Trial of Alex Jones Revealed About His Finances - The New York Times - August 12th, 2022
- Big Tech's Ban on Alex Jones Fans the Flames of His Conspiracy Theories - Reason - August 4th, 2022
- A New Cloud Company Looking to Disrupt The Old Order - Digital Journal - August 4th, 2022
- Nazis try to get on the ballot in Massachusetts - but may not have collected enough signatures - Universal Hub - August 4th, 2022
- Meme Creators Want Instagram To Change Its Content Moderation Policies And Stop Deplatforming Them - BuzzFeed News - July 26th, 2022
- Alexs War: A film about the de-platformed conspiracy theorist hits iTunes July 29 - BGR - July 26th, 2022
- Dozens of States Are Jumping on the Social Media Censorship Bandwagon - Gizmodo - July 26th, 2022
- What is Mike Lees TEAM Act and how would it reform Big Tech? | Opinion - Deseret News - July 18th, 2022
- Amid fears of election subversion, DeSantis' handpicked secretary of state will oversee his race - Salon - July 18th, 2022
- Internal Twitter messages show employees targeting Libs of TikTok ... - July 9th, 2022
- Leaked internal messages show Twitter employees debating whether to ban us - July 9th, 2022
- Trump Appeals Dismissal Of Preposterous Suit Against Twitter For Tortious Deplatforming - Above the Law - June 29th, 2022
- Loud music and take-out alcohol. Here are all the new Florida laws going into effect - WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando - June 29th, 2022
- The brewing fight to keep abortion info online - The Verge - June 29th, 2022
- Yes, Elon, There is a Better Way. - International Policy Digest - June 10th, 2022
- Crypto Is An Invaluable Tool In The Fight Against Financial Oppression - - FinanceFeeds - May 25th, 2022
- Law's Jessie Hill discussed the legality of social media "deplatforming" - The Daily | Case Western Reserve University - May 11th, 2022
- Court Dropkicks Trump Twitter LOLsuit For THAT'S NOT HOW ANY OF THIS WORKS - Above the Law - May 11th, 2022
- Commentary: Is Ron DeSantis the Trump of the future? - Palm Beach Post - May 11th, 2022
- Jesus, endless war and the irresistible rise of American fascism - Salon - May 11th, 2022
- Who did Twitter ban during the Trump era, and why? - Los Angeles Times - April 28th, 2022
- The Unholy Alliance Between the US Security Apparatus and Big Tech - Fair Observer - April 28th, 2022
- Jimmy Kimmel Weighs-in on Not De-Platforming Joe Rogan: Its Not as Black and White as Sometimes the Media Makes It Out to Be - EssentiallySports - April 28th, 2022
- 'More tears and tantrums on Twitter are guaranteed' - The Week UK - April 28th, 2022
- Social media has a serious disinformation problem. But it can be fixed - The Indian Express - April 13th, 2022
- Social media company Minds and Daryl Davis tell Joe Rogan ... - April 13th, 2022