Nothing to see here, move along! Illiberal contexts as catalyzers of authoritarian misperception of democratic quality

Abstract This study investigates the role of authoritarianism, a psychological characteristic at the individual level, in systemic democratic backsliding. Authoritarianism has been primarily regarded as a driver of nondemocratic changes through the establishment of illiberal and antidemocratic attitudes and preferences. However, our multinational study proposes an additional mechanism. By analyzing data from the European Social Survey, gathered from representative samples across 31 European countries, we demonstrate that authoritarianism can also foster a misperception of the quality of liberal democracy, making an illiberal context appear more democratic than it is in reality. Specifically, individuals with authoritarian tendencies tend to perceive the functioning of liberal democratic principles more positively in more illiberal countries, where the actual quality of liberal democracy is lower. This discrepancy between an illiberal, antidemocratic reality and its contrasting perception is identified as a motivated perceptual distortion, catalyzed by a negative antidemocratic context. This latter mechanism can indirectly contribute to institutional democratic decline, making voters with authoritarian attitudes less sensitive to the violations of democratic norms.