Research Seminar: Authoritarian Dispositions and the Politics of AI

People with stronger authoritarian attitudes have more trust in AI and higher support for AI-enabled governance.

The growing role of AI in governance has prompted concerns about its implications for democracy and its relationship to authoritarian political tendencies. This article investigates how authoritarian dispositions shape trust in AI and support for AI-enabled governance. These relationships are analysed using a 2026 survey of the Swedish population (N = 1,024). We analyse the association between authoritarian attitudes, generalized trust in AI, and support for the automation of public-sector decision-making. The results show that authoritarian attitudes are positively associated with trust in AI and support for AI-enabled governance, after controlling for socio-demographic factors and related psychological dispositions. However, support is highly context dependent. Respondents with stronger authoritarian tendencies are supportive of AI for surveillance, predictive policing, and social scoring, while showing little additional support for administrative automation. The findings suggest that AI’s appeal to authoritarian-minded individuals is linked to its perceived capacity for social control rather than automation itself.

Fredrik Stiernstedt is Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Södertörn University, Sweden and Research Fellow at the Paris Institute for Advanced Study. His research concerns welfare, vulnerability and democratic erosion in the AI-era.