Authoritarian ideology and national threat mutually reinforce each other

Evidence

In addition, as illustrated by the reciprocal arrows between these elements in figure 14.1, ideologies and situational factors that promote perceived group competition may be mutually reinforcing so that the ideologies heighten sensitivity to situational factors, and the situational factors reinforce and strengthen the ideologies. For example, right-wing authoritarians are particularly sensitive to perceived threats to their values (Esses et al., 1993), and conversely, national threat and uncertainty have been shown to lead to increased expressions of authoritarianism (Altemeyer, 1996; Doty, Peterson, & Winter, 1991). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1506

Categorization

• QUESTION: Worth chasing: the feedback loop implies authoritarianism is not just a stable personality trait but state-dependent, rising when threats are made salient. What breaks the loop?
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1506
• XREF: connects to: Societal threat causally drives authoritarianism rather than merely co-occurring with it. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 832