There is no one worse than us: The construct validity of the Ingroup criticism scale

Abstract

The study aims to establish the nomological network of Ingroup criticism (IGC), a novel construct conceptualized as a propensity to be critical toward one’s own society. This encapsulates negative attitudes toward authoritarian, nationalistic, and parochial social and political practices, as well as extremely negative prejudices, hatred, and intolerance toward one’s own national group. We examined its relationships with a broad spectrum of constructs classified into eight blocks: socio-demographic variables, personality traits and related variables, thinking styles and dispositions, socio-political attitudes, prejudice, moral sensitivity, free market ideology, and ethnocentrism. IGC was assessed via the previously developed 40-item Ingroup criticism scale. The scale consists of four subscales (Autochauvinism, Perception of in-group as intolerant and hostile, Perception of in-group as authoritarian and corrupt, Rejection of conspiratorial interpretation of IGC). The sample (N = 806; 44.9% women; Mage = 40.99, SDage = 13.56) was drawn from the general population and recruited via social network platforms. To examine the relations between constructs, we conducted an eight-step hierarchical regression analysis with our general factor (i.e., Ingroup criticism) as a criterion and the aforementioned eight blocks of variables as predictors. All blocks (except free market ideology) contributed significantly to this prediction. The sociodemographics explained 1.5% of variance (F(5, 800) = 2.52, p = .028), personality traits and related variables 10.9% (F(11, 789) = 8.91, p < .001), thinking dispositions and styles 5% (F(4, 785) = 12.26, p < .001), socio-political attitudes 16.6% (F(4, 781) = 49.26, p < .001), moral sensitivity 11.7% (F(2, 779) = 84.14, p < .001), prejudices 4.4% (F(1, 779) = 69.39, p < .001), and ethnocentrism 18.1% (F(2, 774) = 222.9, p < .001). The overall percentage of explained variance amounts to 68.6%. Our results show that those prone to IGC tend to be low on ethnocentrism and national pride, to strongly adopt democratic values, are sensitive moral progressivists (morality based on fairness and care), not prejudiced, conscientious, but with slightly elevated Disintegration, proneness to anger, dissatisfaction with life, and need for closure. We discuss the position of IGC at the crossroad of personality and sociopolitical attitudes.