To kneel or not to kneel: Right-wing authoritarianism predicts attitudes toward NFL kneeling protests

During the 2016–2017 season, several NFL players started kneeling during the national anthem as a protest against institutional racism. These actions sparked considerable public controversy and polarized attitudes toward the protests. Two explanations were raised in the media for differences in attitudes: sensitivity to racial inequality and respect for tradition. We examined the extent to which these explanations, as assessed by ethnocentrism and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), respectively, accounted for attitudes toward the protests in a sample of white, U.S. college students (N = 294). When examined as simultaneous predictors, RWA, but not ethnocentrism, predicted more negative attitudes toward the protests. These findings suggest that attitudes toward the protests may have been based more on how the protest was enacted (respect for tradition), rather than the topic of the protest (racial inequality).

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Notes

The analyses were also conducted with the full sample. Overall, the pattern of results did not differ when non-white participants were included.

The regression analysis was also conducted without including political ideology. The primary results regarding RWA and ethnocentrism remained the same.

We also explored whether ethnocentrism moderated the association between RWA and attitude toward the kneeling protest. The interaction was not significant (p = .47).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, USA, PO Box 6040, Morgantown, WV, 26506-6040, USA Barış Sevi, Nathan Altman, Cameron G. Ford & Natalie J. Shook

1. Barış Sevi