Chinese generational differences in the relationships among authoritarian personality, generalized political attitudes, and political trust: a canonical correlation analysis

Few existing studies have simultaneously investigated the inter-relationships among authoritarian personality, generalized political attitudes, and political trust from a generational perspective within the Chinese context. Clarifying these linkages across different birth cohorts can help understand the psychological origins of citizens’ political trust and provide evidence for optimizing social governance. Based on the data from the Chinese Social Awareness Survey of Netizens, with a total effective sample of 3510 netizens (2272 males, 1238 females). Participants were classified into three generational groups: the 1990s~2000s (n 1 = 1817), the 1980s (n 2 = 1308), and the 1970s (n 3 = 385). The canonical correlation analysis (CCA) was adopted to identify and measure the relationships between three variable groups—authoritarian personality, generalized political attitude, and political trust. Redundancy analysis and cross-validation were also performed to examine the explained variance and ensure the robustness of CCA results. Significant positive canonical correlations existed among authoritarian personality, generalized political attitudes, and political trust; these correlation magnitudes increased among older generations. Across all three generational groups, orderliness was the dominant dimension of authoritarian personality, collectivism stood as the most representative component of generalized political attitudes, and trust in the central government constituted the core element of political trust. To improve citizens’ political trust, greater attention should be paid to the roles of orderliness and collectivism, as well as to heterogeneous psychological features across generations. Targeted strategies adapting to cohort-specific characteristics are advocated when designing interventions to foster public political trust.