When Desire Fluctuates, So Does Radicalism: A Four-Wave Longitudinal Study of Sociosexuality, Authoritarianism, Dominance, and Sexism

Reproductive interests have been proposed as an ultimate origin of ideological beliefs. In particular, individual differences in short-term mating strategies have been identified as explaining endorsementof authoritarian, dominance-oriented, and sexist ideologies. These connections have been examined cross-sectionally and experimentally, yet no studies to date have examined whether naturalisticfluctuations in short-term mating interest covary with ideological endorsement. To address this gap, Norwegian students (N = 632) were tracked over approximately nine months, reporting theirsociosexual orientation (SOI), social dominance orientation, left-wing authoritarianism, radicalism, extremism, and sexism at four time points. Individuals higher in SOI-Behavior and SOI-Desire weregenerally higher in social dominance, radicalism, and sexism. However, when individuals became more sexually unrestricted than they usually were, they reported lower radicalism and authoritarianism thanthey usually did. At the between-person level, SOI-Attitude also diverged from Desire and Behavior: it was negatively related to social dominance, yet positively related to left-wing authoritarianism. Thisstudy is the first to document how components of SOI have different relationships to ideologies. It also documents that natural fluctuations in sociosexuality covary with changes in dominant-authoritarian-radicalist ideology.