The emergence of political orientation: Authoritarian and social dominance attitudes in early childhood.

Political ideology guides individuals' perceptions, goals, and behaviors in the sociopolitical arena, with profound societal consequences. Prior research on the emergence of individual differences in ideological orientation points to early adulthood as the critical age at which such differences first manifest. We challenge this conclusion and investigate whether systematic proto-ideological orientations are already present among children as young as 4 years of age. Specifically, we examined individual differences in children's authoritarian and social dominance attitudes-two central, consequential ideological orientations among adults. To determine whether children's early attitudes are valid markers of ideological orientations per se, we tested whether these attitudes were systematically related to parents' ideological orientations, as is the case among young adults. Across two studies with Israeli mothers and their 4- to 8-year-old children (Ns = 154 and 190, respectively), we found systematic individual differences in children's authoritarian and social dominance attitudes, measured with newly developed, child-appropriate measures: Children's authoritarian attitudes corresponded to their mothers' authoritarianism (Study 1), and their social dominance attitudes corresponded to their mothers' social dominance orientation with regard to hierarchy (but not inequality; Studies 1 and 2). Notably, mother-child correlations were especially strong among children whose mothers were their primary caregivers, hinting at a possible socialization process. Together, these findings suggest that the seeds of ideology are apparent as early as age 4, and highlight the importance of developmental research for a deeper understanding of adult political ideology. We consider contextual limitations to the generalizability of our findings and offer directions for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).