{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,6]],"date-time":"2026-05-06T19:21:08Z","timestamp":1778095268781,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"SAGE Publications","issue":"11","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2020,9,30]],"date-time":"2020-09-30T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1601424000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":366,"URL":"http:\/\/www.sagepub.com\/licence-information-for-chorus"}],"funder":[{"name":"the Center for Intercultural and Indigenous Research CIIR","award":["15110006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["15110006"]}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000923","name":"australian research council","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["DP170101008"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["DP170101008"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000923","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"name":"the Center for Social Conflict and Cohesion Studies","award":["15130009"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["15130009"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["journals.sagepub.com"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Psychol Sci"],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2019,11]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>Societal inequality has been found to harm the mental and physical health of its members and undermine overall social cohesion. Here, we tested the hypothesis that economic inequality is associated with a wish for a strong leader in a study involving 28 countries from five continents (Study 1, N = 6,112), a study involving an Australian community sample (Study 2, N = 515), and two experiments (Study 3a, N = 96; Study 3b, N = 296). We found correlational (Studies 1 and 2) and experimental (Studies 3a and 3b) evidence for our prediction that higher inequality enhances the wish for a strong leader. We also found that this relationship is mediated by perceptions of anomie, except in the case of objective inequality in Study 1. This suggests that societal inequality enhances the perception that society is breaking down (anomie) and that a strong leader is needed to restore order (even when that leader is willing to challenge democratic values).<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1177\/0956797619875472","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2019,9,30]],"date-time":"2019-09-30T23:04:07Z","timestamp":1569884647000},"page":"1625-1637","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/sage-journals-update-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":158,"title":["\u201cOur Country Needs a Strong Leader Right Now\u201d: Economic Inequality Enhances the Wish for a Strong Leader"],"prefix":"10.1177","volume":"30","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7261-3207","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Stefanie","family":"Sprong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Sociology, Trinity College 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University"}]},{"given":"Brock","family":"Bastian","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychological Sciences, University of Melbourne"}]},{"given":"Amarina","family":"Ariyanto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychology, University of Indonesia"}]},{"given":"Fr\u00e9d\u00e9rique","family":"Autin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l\u2019Apprentissage, Universit\u00e9 de Poitiers, Universit\u00e9 de Tours, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique"}]},{"given":"Nadia","family":"Ayub","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Business Psychology Department, Institute of Business Management, Karachi, Pakistan"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7459-4698","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Constantina","family":"Badea","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Psychology Department, Universit\u00e9 Paris Nanterre"}]},{"given":"Tomasz","family":"Besta","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, University of Gda\u0144sk"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8856-4374","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Fabrizio","family":"Butera","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Psychology, University of Lausanne"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1509-6397","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Rui","family":"Costa-Lopes","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon"}]},{"given":"Lijuan","family":"Cui","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University"}]},{"given":"Carole","family":"Fantini","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles"}]},{"given":"Gillian","family":"Finchilescu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Psychology 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Business School, Chinese University of Hong Kong"}]},{"given":"Dorthe H\u00f8j","family":"Jensen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University"}]},{"given":"Inga","family":"Jasinskaja-Lahti","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Social Research, University of Helsinki"}]},{"given":"Minoru","family":"Karasawa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Cognitive & Psychological Sciences, Nagoya University"}]},{"given":"Thomas","family":"Kessler","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Psychology, University of Jena"}]},{"given":"Olivier","family":"Klein","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Psychological Sciences and Education, Universit\u00e9 Libre de Bruxelles"}]},{"given":"Marcus","family":"Lima","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Psychology Department, Federal University of 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