![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
Abstract
This paper examined whether perceiving a historical analogy between former Nazi collaborator parties and contemporary far-right parties is negatively associated with support for the current far right. It was predicted that this relationship would be mediated by perceived immorality of far-right anti-Muslim standpoints. A survey study (Study 1) demonstrated that perceiving this historical analogy is negatively related to both electoral support for the far right and opposition to Muslim expressive rights. An experiment (Study 2) showed that drawing this historical analogy reduces both electoral support for the far right and opposition to Muslim expressive rights through perceived immorality of far-right anti-Muslim standpoints. The implications of historical analogies for people's attitudes toward present-day social and political issues are discussed.
Notes
* These authors contributed equally.
1 The NSB was a Dutch fascist and national socialist party that collaborated with the Nazis during WWII.
2 We selected these viewpoints on the basis of Swyngedouw (Citation1995) and after a thorough analysis of propaganda materials and speeches from VNV party officials and Flemish interest party officials. These materials are available from the authors upon request.
3 We also examined whether the historical analogy manipulation had an effect on electoral support for other existing political parties in Belgium, but this was not the case (ps>.341).
4 In order to further demonstrate that the observed effects of our subtle historical analogy manipulation were driven by a perceived historical analogy, we tested a double-mediation model that included perceived historical analogy (i.e., manipulation check) as an additional mediator between the historical analogy manipulation and perceived immorality. We tested an indirect-only model, which means that we did not include any direct effects of the perceived historical analogy manipulation on perceived immorality and on the dependent variables nor did we include direct effects of perceived historical analogy on the dependent variables. This indirect-only model had a good fit to the data, χ2(5) = 2.49, p = .778, CFI = 1.00, GFI = .99, and RMSEA = .00. Furthermore, the model fit could not be improved by adding direct paths from the historical analogy manipulation to the dependent variables (Δχ2(2, N = 90) = 1.29, p = .525) or to perceived immorality (Δχ2(1, N = 90) = 1.11, p = .292) nor by adding direct paths from perceived historical analogy to the dependent variables (Δχ2(2, N = 90) = 0.10, p = .951). Examining the path coefficients showed that the historical analogy manipulation had a significant positive effect on perceived historical analogy (β = .22, p = .016), and perceived historical analogy subsequently predicted perceived immorality (β = .46, p < .001). Perceived immorality, in turn, predicted opposition against Muslim rights and electoral support for the far right. Bootstrapping revealed that the historical analogy manipulation had a significant indirect effect on perceived immorality via perceived historical analogy, with a point estimate of .13 and a BBCI of .017–.305. In addition, the total indirect effects of the manipulation on opposition (with a point estimate of − .10 and a BBCI of − .244 to − .007) and electoral support (with a point estimate of − .28 and a BBCI of − .559 to − .009) were also significant. These results indicate that the effect of the historical analogy manipulation on perceived immorality is mediated by perceived historical analogy, and that perceived immorality subsequently decreased support for far-right parties.