Krekó, Péter and Whitefield, Stephen and Enyedi, Zsolt and Orosz, Gábor and Salamon, János (2026) MORES - Moral Emotions in Politics: Cracks in the System: A Democratic Inoculation Intervention that Enhances Recognition of Authoritarian. [Data Collection]
Abstract
A modern autoriter rendszerek gyakran stabilnak tűnnek egészen addig, amíg apró repedések hirtelen fel nem fedik törékenységüket. Segíthetnek-e a múlt demokratikus kudarcai abban, hogy az állampolgárok időben felismerjék ezeket a pillanatokat, mielőtt túl késő lenne? A demokratikus inokuláció kutatására építve két rövid (<15 perces), narratívaalapú intervenciót fejlesztettünk ki, amelyek célja az autoriter retorikával szembeni érzékenység növelése volt. Egy preregisztrált kérdőíves kísérletben 1175 magyar felnőtt résztvevőt véletlenszerűen osztottunk be egy Fokozatos Kiépülés feltételbe (amely a demokrácia lassú leépülését szemléltette), egy Repedések feltételbe (amely a rezsim gyengülésének korai jeleit emelte ki), vagy egy nem politikai kontrollfeltételbe. Mindkét intervenció történelmi példákat, szakértői nézőpontokat és egy önmeggyőzési feladatot alkalmazott. A Repedések intervenció következetesen csökkentette az autoriter állításokkal való egyetértést, valamint növelte az autoriter hangnem felismerését, az észlelt demokratikus fenyegetettséget és az erkölcsi aggodalmat egy valós, jogokat korlátozó törvényjavaslattal kapcsolatban. A Fokozatos Kiépülés intervenció hatásai gyengébbek és kevésbé következetesek voltak. Kiemelendő, hogy a hatásokat sem a pártpolitikai hovatartozás, sem a populista attitűdök nem moderálták, ami arra utal, hogy az intervenciók a politikai spektrum egészében relevánsak lehetnek.
Modern authoritarian systems often appear stable until small cracks suddenly reveal their fragility. Can past democratic failures help citizens recognize such moments before it is too late? Building on democratic inoculation research, we developed two brief (<15 min), narrative-based interventions designed to increase sensitivity to authoritarian rhetoric. In a preregistered survey experiment with 1,175 Hungarian adults, participants were randomly assigned to a Gradual Build-Up condition (illustrating slow democratic erosion), a Cracks condition (highlighting early signals of regime weakening), or a non-political control. Both interventions used historical examples, expert perspectives, and a self-persuasion task. The Cracks intervention consistently reduced agreement with authoritarian statements and increased recognition of authoritarian tone, perceived democratic threat, and moral concern following a real-world restrictive legal proposal. Effects of the Gradual Build-Up intervention were weaker and less consistent. Importantly, effects were not moderated by partisanship or populist attitudes, suggesting broad relevance across the political spectrum.
Legal and ethical issues
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| Acronym: | Cracks in the System | ||
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| Title in English: | MORES - Moral Emotions in Politics: Cracks in the System: A Democratic Inoculation Intervention that Enhances Recognition of Authoritarian | ||
| Keywords: | demokratikus hanyatlás, autoriter retorika, demokratikus inokuláció, célzott pszichológiai intervenciók, politikai megismerés, a rezsim törékenysége, önmeggyőzés | ||
| Keywords in English: | democratic backsliding, authoritarian rhetoric, democratic inoculation, wise interventions, political cognition, regime fragility, self-persuasion | ||
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General) |
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| Divisions: | Institute for Political Science | ||
| Research funder: | European Union (EU), MORES project, grant no. 101132601 | ||
| Depositing User: | Enikő Meiszterics | ||
| Date Deposited: | 14 May 2026 10:49 | ||
| Last Modified: | 15 May 2026 13:38 | ||
| Related papers or data collections: |
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| URI: | https://openarchive.tk.mta.hu/id/eprint/664 | ||
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