Authoritarianism can be traced to measurable environmental experiences

Evidence

I did not get very far explaining how the environment had shaped students’ authoritarianism until I developed a questionnaire measure of the students’ experiences in life with authorities, social conventions, dissenters, physical punishment, religion, and the other matters brought up on the RWA Scale. Four item-development studies during 1982-1984 eventually produced a twenty-four-statement Experiences Scale, which students were instructed to answer in terms of what had actually happened, not in terms of what their opinions were (EOF, pp. 343-349). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 992