A report on the study’s findings, published Wednesday, concludes that ideologues who adopt core tenets of gender theory tend to hold left-wing authoritarian beliefs, a psychological profile marked by aggression toward perceived oppressors and enthusiasm for top-down censorship paired with institutional enforcement.The study’s authors, comprised of researchers from Rutgers University, the Manhattan Institute, and the Network Contagion Research Institute, titled the report, “Where the Clinic Meets the Movement: Does Gender Ideology Arm Left-Wing Authoritarian Psychology?”
As part of the study, a national sample of over 1,200 U.S. adults answered a questionnaire assessing their beliefs about the importance of affirming people’s “gender identity,” purported threats to individuals who identify as transgender, their support for anti-democratic behavior such as blocking an elected official from taking office, and whether they believe there is a “trans genocide” in the United States.The belief that an entire group of people are actively being wiped out on a genocidal scale that, therefore, necessitates some form of violent resistance mirrors broader past research showing that “collective victimhood” of a perceived existential threat can increase an individual’s support for hard-line or punitive actions.Indeed, the HHS-funded study’s results indicate that gender ideology is strongly associated with authoritarian attitudes alongside a willingness to justify political violence. Of the participants surveyed, those who held left-wing authoritarian views were more likely to see political violence as morally justifiable than their non-liberal counterparts.Both adoption of gender ideology and left-wing authoritarianism were associated with greater endorsement of political violence across all six scenarios presented to the survey respondents: the real-life killings of Charlie Kirk and UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, the hypothetical assassination of President Donald Trump, arson attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities, destruction of wealthy people’s property, and anti-police violence. Participants had rated their support for each violent event on a five-point scale ranging from “Not at all justified” to “Completely justified.”
