Exploring short-term longitudinal effects of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation on environmentalism ☆ Samantha K. Stanley, Marc S. Wilson ⁎, Taciano L. Milfont School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand abstract article info Article history: Received 14 July 2016 Received in revised form 6 November 2016 Accepted 27 November 2016 Available online xxxx 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 asso- ciations between RWA, SDO, pro-environmental attitudes and climate change denial using data from 674 under- graduates 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 tradition- al values, and less by the desire for human dominance over nature. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Right-wing authoritarianism Social dominance orientation Environmentalism Climate change Longitudinal study 1. Introduction The evidence is unequivocal: climate change is real, it is influenced by human behaviour, and its negative effects will only get worse if we fail to act now (IPCC, 2014). A number of psychological studies have tried to identify the main drivers and barriers of climate change action (e.g. Swim et al., 2009), with a recent meta-analysis showing that polit- ical affiliation and ideology are the strongest predictors of climate change belief (Hornsey, Harris, Bain, & Fielding, 2016). Individuals who hold conservative political ideologies are less likely to believe in cli- mate change than more liberal individuals. Hornsey and colleague's meta-analysis did not include two individual difference variables intrin- sically linked to political affiliation and ideology: right-wing authoritar- ianism (RWA: Altemeyer, 1996) and social dominance orientation (SDO: Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Altemeyer (1996) describes RWA as a constellation of attitudes in- cluding submission to authority, preference for tradition, and antipathy towards those who oppose authority. Early research by Schultz and Stone (1994) identified a negative relationship between RWA and envi- ronmentalism, regardless of whether environmentalism was operation- alized as support for a new power plant, attitudes towards river pollution, or general pro-environmental attitudes (see also Milfont & Duckitt, 2010). Individuals who endorse SDO prefer hierarchical social systems, where ‘superior’ groups dominate over groups considered ‘inferior’ (Sidanius & Pratto, 1999). Milfont, Richter, Sibley, Wilson, and Fischer (2013) suggest that this desire to dominate other groups in society ex- tends to a desire for human dominance over nature. Consistent with this argument, they found that individuals who reported greater levels of SDO are more supportive of human actions that are detrimental to the environment, especially when environmental exploitation benefits the social elite (Jackson, Bitacola, Janes, & Esses, 2013; Milfont & Sibley, 2014). Other studies have also shown that SDO is related to climate change denial, with greater SDO levels related to higher denial (e.g., Häkkinen & Akrami, 2014; Jylhä & Akrami, 2015; Jylhä, Cantal, Akrami, & Milfont, 2016; Milfont et al., 2013, Study 4). Taken together, research consistently shows a link between RWA and SDO and lower environmentalism. At the same time, research si- multaneously considering RWA and SDO in the same study suggests that SDO is a stronger predictor of environmentalism than RWA. Specif- ically, SDO accounts for a statistically significant amount of additional variance over and above RWA in predicting pro-environmental atti- tudes and climate change denial (Milfont et al., 2013, Studies 3 and 4), and RWA becomes a non-significant predictor of climate change denial when controlling for SDO (Häkkinen & Akrami, 2014). Moreover, sup- port for environmental exploitation that benefits the social elite ob- served for those scoring high in SDO is unaffected when RWA is controlled for (Milfont & Sibley, 2014). 2. The present study Past research has shown that (1) political affiliation and ideology are the main predictors of in climate change belief, (2) RWA and SDO—two individual difference variables intrinsically linked to political orientation—are negatively associated with climate change beliefs and Personality and Individual Differences 108 (2017) 174–177 ☆ The authors are grateful for the participants who volunteered to take part in the study. ⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington 6001, New Zealand. E-mail address: marc.wilson@vuw.ac.nz (M.S. Wilson). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.11.059 0191-8869/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 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