Exploring short-term longitudinal effects of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation on environmentalism

- Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation predict environmentalism.
- Past research has relied on cross-sectional data, with SDO showing greater prediction.
- Our data showed RWA to be the key longitudinal predictor of environmentalism.
- SDO did not reliably predict change in environmentalism over time.

People who endorse right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) tend to be less concerned about the environment. Yet, the extant literature has so far relied on cross-sectional data to examine the associations between RWA, SDO and environmentalism. We present cross-lagged panel analysis of the associations between RWA, SDO, pro-environmental attitudes and climate change denial using data from 674 undergraduates surveyed twice over five months. RWA and SDO were negatively related to pro-environmental attitudes while positively related to climate change denial in cross-sectional analysis. Notably, RWA predicted change in both environmental variables over time, while SDO did not. This suggests that change in general pro-environmental attitudes and climate change denial are motivated more by the desire to conform to traditional values, and less by the desire for human dominance over nature.