The worth of work: Socio-political and demographic correlates of anti-work orientation

Anti-work refers to a contentious rejection of work as a determinant of one's self-worth or worth to society. The most central principle is that work requires the submission of the individual's free will for the benefit of the organization and that this has negative consequences for workers' well-being. Even though the anti-work movement has grown rapidly in recent years, research on this phenomenon is scarce. This preregistered study ( N = 2595) aimed to examine the relation between anti-work orientation and a range of socio-political attitudes, as well as its prevalence among different demographic groups in Sweden. The results revealed that anti-democratic attitudes and anti-hierarchical aggression were the strongest socio-political predictors of anti-work attitudes, followed by support for censorship and partisanship. Furthermore, voters of both the left party and the right-wing populist party were overrepresented among individuals scoring high on anti-work orientation, suggesting an “extremism” effect at both ends of the political spectrum. The strongest demographic predictors were young age and low income. Interestingly, latent class analysis revealed that men were strongly overrepresented in both the class of anti-work-supporters and the class with low anti-work orientation. These findings add new insights into the growing political discourse around the nature of work. • Anti-work orientation is common among working adults in Sweden. • Ideology plays a larger role than social background in explaining anti-work orientation. • Anti-democratic attitudes and anti-hierarchical aggression are the strongest socio-political predictors. • The typical anti-work supporter is male, politically far-right or far-left, young, and working in a low-skilled occupation.