character “ alt - right ” into Google and you ’ll trip up across good deal of think - slice on the bailiwick . Journalists and political commentators on all sides have attempted to understand this new and pernicious force in ( primarily ) American politics , which does n’t seem to be sound away anytime soon . In fact , now that Trump is in the White House , it has only intensified .
The so - call in alternate rightfield might be super vocal but it is also extremely obscure . It resembles a loose alliance of far right advocates more than it does a light and concise political orientation . Beyond themes of white supremacy , anti - establishment attitude , and not - so - discreet racial discrimination , there is not all that much known about what it suffer for . So psychologists Patrick Forscher and Nour Kteily decided to put together a psychological visibility on the group . It is still a working theme , but the upshot were published in a preprint last week , which is available toread here .
To create this visibility , Forscher and Kteily recruited 447 self - identified member of the alt - right field and sent them an online survey , which tested them on a serial of psychological measures . The researcher then compared these response to those of a control chemical group of 382 people .
Much confirms what we already jazz about the alt - rightfield : they distrust mainstream media and politicians , they show enceinte support for pro - white governing body and are more likely to show bias against mordant masses . They also score higher on what is known as thedark triadof personality traits : self-love , Machiavellianism , and psychopathy .
Neither is the demographic all that lurid . human race outnumber cleaning woman two to one . The huge majority ( 93.3 percent ) were white . Almost three - living quarters supported Trump in the 2016 election , while one in 10 choose not to vote at all . astonishingly , they found that just over 5 percent backed Hillary Clinton .
Perhaps most terrifyingly of all , participants were asked to order how advanced they believed unlike groups of people to be on a scale of zero ( not at all human ) to 100 ( entirely human ) . Warning : the answer are passably horrific .
Alt - righters blackleg white people higher than all other groups , point them at a 91.8 on the evolutionary scale , whereas Jews were rated 73.09 , Mexicans 67.75 , black mass 64.72 and Muslims 55.4 . Women were gauge to be less evolved than men ( 88.47 versus 83.12 ) .
feminist were specially despised ( 57.22 ) . Republicans were consider to be more evolved than Democrats ( 82.78 versus 60.38 ) but the lowest scorekeeper was Hillary Clinton ( 54.83 ) .
This is enormously significant because it is efficaciously dehumanizing huge groups of mass – basically anyone that does not fit into the alt - correct mold . see anyone as less than human – and therefore , less deserving of human right – is , of course , a serious matter
When it derive to enquiry of social circumstances and the economy , the alt - right were neither socially isolated or economically frustrated . According to the study , alt - righters and individuals in the control grouping had similar spirit level of close friends , and , if anything , the alt - right adherents cover a more confirming outlook towards the economy . It seems that racial bias and anxiousness were the primary drivers to alt - right rank .
Forscher and Kteily did key out two sub - groups of the alt - right : those who represent the more populist , anti - establishment fender and those with a more extremist magniloquence , move by ideals of white supremism and wanting to maintain the societal hierarchy . Though they did note that there is significant overlap and suggested the former sub - group could be a gateway to the latter as they become more Byzantine in alt - right mesh .
Though there are some limitations , which the researchers have themselves acknowledged , including the fact that they relied on participant to self - identify , the study does extend some interesting penetration into the minds and motivations of the American altitude - right .
