Cognitive ability and authoritarianism: Understanding support for Trump and Clinton

With Donald Trump the Republican nominee and Hillary Clinton the Democratic nominee for the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, speculations of why Trump resonates with many Americans are widespread - as are suppositions of whether, independent of party identification, people might vote for Hillary Clinton. The present study, using a sample of American adults (n=406), investigated whether two ideological beliefs, namely, right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) uniquely predicted Trump support and voting intentions for Clinton. Cognitive ability as a predictor of RWA and SDO was also tested. Path analyses, controlling for political party identification, revealed that higher RWA and SDO uniquely predicted more favorable attitudes of Trump, greater intentions to vote for Trump, and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. Lower cognitive ability predicted greater RWA and SDO and indirectly predicted more favorable Trump attitudes, greater intentions to vote for Trump and lower intentions to vote for Clinton. •Tested the relations of cognitive ability, RWA/SDO, and Trump support.•Also examined voting intentions for 2016U.S. Presidential election.•Ran path analyses with cognitive ability→RWA/SDO→Trump and Clinton support.•Ability directly predicted RWA/SDO and indirectly Trump and Clinton support.•RWA and SDO predicted greater Trump support and lower Clinton support.