Authoritarianism is defined by which information induces attitude change

Evidence

My conclusion, then, is that it has not been demonstrated that fascists and communists resemble one another in authoritarianism or in any other dimension of ideology. No one thus far has shown that there is an authoritarian of the left. Still the impression persists that such a type exists and that some communists belong to it. … Perhaps the authoritarian is a person who is best characterized by the kind of information that will induce him to change his attitudes. The authoritarian will reverse his evaluations on the simple say-so of an authority figure. If Stalin signs a pact with Berlin then Nazism becomes acceptable for the authoritarian Communist; if Khrushchev devaluates Stalin the Communist authoritarian does the same. The authoritarian liberal would change his views on Communism if Franklin Roosevelt had told him to do so. I would characterize the authoritarian in terms of the kind of information that is sufficient to induce a change of his attitudes. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 678

Categorization

• XREF: Anticipates modern source-cue and motivated-reasoning research; echoes Hovland’s persuasion tradition and Zaller’s elite-cue model of opinion change. — connects to: Authoritarianism is a property of belief-change triggers, not belief content itself — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 680
• SEED: Article angle: reframing authoritarianism as content-independent deference to authority cues could explain today’s loyalty-shifting across political camps.