Authoritarian personality
A disposition towards submission to established authority, aggression towards out-groups and deviants, and adherence to conventional norms. Modern research treats it as a preference for order and sameness over diversity and autonomy, activated by perceived threat.
What drives it
Provides security and certainty through clear hierarchy and rules, and channels anxiety and aggression towards those seen as threats to order.
How it shows
Work
Defers quickly to whoever holds formal rank and expects the same from those below, enforces rules for their own sake, harsh on people who deviate ('they knew the policy'), uncomfortable with ambiguity, flat structures and diversity initiatives, admires strong decisive leaders and is suspicious of consensus-builders. Under threat (layoffs, a crisis, an outside rival) these tendencies sharpen: Stenner's work shows authoritarianism is a predisposition that activates when people feel the group's order is under attack.
Relationships
Values obedience and good manners in children over curiosity and independence (the child-rearing questions used to measure it), prefers traditional roles, reacts with anger or contempt when a family member breaks with convention, sees moral questions in black and white.
Self
Discomfort with ambiguity and difference, a pull to follow strong leaders, irritation or anger at people who break norms.
What tells it apart
Need for cognitive closure: Need for closure is a cognitive preference for quick answers that varies with situation; authoritarianism adds submission to authority and aggression towards out-groups.
Obedience to authority: Obedience is a situational behaviour most people show under pressure; authoritarianism is a stable disposition that seeks out and enjoys hierarchy.
System justification: System justification is defending the status quo; authoritarianism is about deference to authority and punishing deviants. A person can defend the system without wanting to punish rule-breakers.
A test
Ask how they think rule-breakers should be dealt with and watch whether punishment and conformity are emphasised.
Questions to carry
- Asked how rule-breakers ought to be dealt with, where does the person’s answer go first?
- When things feel less predictable, which people start to look like a threat to me?
How strong the research is
moderate. The original F-scale was criticised for acquiescence bias and political bias; Altemeyer's RWA scale and later child-rearing measures are well validated and predict prejudice and support for strongmen.
Where it comes from
Theodor Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford, 1950; Bob Altemeyer, 1981; Karen Stenner, 2005
Sources
- Erich Fromm, Escape from Freedom (1941)
- T.W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel J. Levinson and R. Nevitt Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality (1950)