Did Secretary Clinton lose to a ‘basket of deplorables’? An examination of Islamophobia, homophobia, sexism and conservative ideology in the 2016 US presidential election

The current study compared attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals, racism, Islamophobia, ambivalent sexism and conservative ideology across Hillary Clinton voters, Donald Trump voters and third party/undecided voters in the 2016 US presidential election. Participants (n = 249) intending to vote for Clinton had significantly lower scores on all attitude measures compared to Trump and third party/undecided voters, with the exception of Islamophobia, where Clinton and third party/undecided voters had significantly lower scores than Trump voters. A multinomial logistic regression was run to assess age, education, attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals, Islamophobia, sexism and social dominance orientation, as predictors of being a Trump, Clinton or a third party/undecided voter. Attitudes towards LGBTQ individuals, Islamophobia, sexism and social dominance orientation were significant predictors of voting behaviour such that those who were less homophobic, less Islamophobic, less sexist and had less of a social dominance orientation were more likely to vote for Clinton than for Trump or a third party candidate. Ambivalent sexism was the strongest predictor of voting for someone other than Clinton, regardless of whether participants identified as Trump or third party/undecided voters. Results are discussed within the context of understanding the role of multiple prejudices in determining the outcome of the 2016 US presidential election.