Several reasons why social anomie and political alienation may influence ethnocentric attitudes. The compensating role of authoritarian-paranoid beliefs

This article is an attempt to ascertain whether it is possible that a permanent experience of helplessness, senselessness and alienation from socio-political reality leads to an individual having ethnocentric attitudes. The supposition that there is a causal relation between the two phenomena would imply that people who feel lost and disoriented tend to have a strong sense of national identity. The empirical data used in the analyses was taken from a survey conducted among a nationwide representative sample of adult Poles (N=1522). The set of hierarchical regression analyses showed that the relations which were observed can be explained as being the effect of the joint operation of two separate mechanisms. Firstly, this is influenced partly by the fact that growing ethnocentrism and increasing anomie and alienation are common among elderly and poorly-educated people. The second mechanism consist of finding that people who experience feelings of socio-political senselessness and helplessness have a tendency to look for compensation in authoritarian-paranoid worldviews. It would seem that authoritarian-paranoid beliefs can be seen as being a mediator between social anomie and political alienation, on the one hand, and ethnocentric attitudes on the other.