The populist effect: Threat and the handover of freedom

Abstract People universally value autonomy, and this is the case particularly in individualist societies. Nevertheless, we hypothesize that even in the US, an individualist society, people are willing to relinquish personal control and choose to be an amorphous entity in a behaviorally homogeneous group when under physical threat because such groups increase the effectiveness in mobilizing collective effort. We found evidence for this hypothesis in two studies. In Study 1, individual differences in perceived physical threat (but not social threat) predicted the preference for joining a homogeneous group, through the mediating effect of lowered endorsement of personal agency. We replicated this result in Study 2, in which the cognitive salience of physical and social threat was experimentally manipulated. We discuss the implications of these results.