Authoritarian traits may cohere from low education and SES, not psychodynamics

Evidence

The major alternative to the personality dynamic explanation of the covariation is the suggestion that the traits of the authoritarian cohere simply because they are the norms of people with little education and low SES. For each particular trait one could work out some plausible derivation from one or another aspect of SES. The dynamic explanation would make the coherence tighter by showing how one trait supports another, not logically but in terms of the needs and defenses postulated by psychoanalytic theory. It is likely that both sets of forces—the dynamic interrelations as well as the ties with status and education—cooperate to hold this mosaic together. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 653

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Fromm conflated sadomasochistic character with authoritarian society, losing the psychological dimension — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 616; Authoritarian personality theory holds that a psychological structure, not objective circumstances, determines fascist character — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1780; Authoritarianism is not a single coherent psychological construct — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 525