Authoritarianism reflects a personality pattern of dutifulness, order, and low openness

Evidence

Still, Allport’s ideas (compared to Adorno et al.’s) better captured the complexity revealed by later research. Most centrally, Allport’s view that fearfulness and a threat orientation are the motivational core of the authoritarian syndrome has been substantially confirmed, whereas Adorno et al.’s hypothesis of repressed aggression has not. Allport’s emphasis on fearfulness and insecurity also led him correctly to view a restricted, limited cognitive style as an essential aspect of this syndrome, whereas Adorno et al. did not. Allport also identified the “philosophy of life” of the social world as dangerous and threatening as an important component of the authoritarian syndrome, while Adorno et al. did not. And finally, Allport emphasized that social environmental uncertainties and threats interact with authoritarianism to elicit hostility toward particular groups and to activate support for authoritarian policies, while Adorno et al. largely ignored social environmental influences. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2487 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Allport suggested that these intrapersonal dynamics of insecurity, anxiety, and threat would produce seven surface traits characteristic of the authoritarian personality: (1) Emotional ambivalence, particularly toward one’s parents, with uncritical positivity on the surface contrasting with repressed underlying resentment; (2) Moralism and rigid conventionality, with punitiveness toward anything deviant or unconventional; (3) Dichotomization, a tendency to categorize the world into rigid, simplistic dichotomies of good–bad, right–wrong, us–them; (4) Needs for definiteness, structure, order, and an intolerance of ambiguity; (5) Externalization, a preference to explain behavior in terms of concrete external forces rather than subjective, inner, psychological processes; (6) Institutionalization, a tendency to seek order and security in organized and institutionalized groups with clear roles, norms, and rules, such as the “nation”; (7) Authoritarianism, a need for strong authority and leaders that would impose order, discipline, and cohesion in society and the nation. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2430 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Astrology columns presuppose and exploit their readers’ ego weakness and social powerlessness — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1957; Authoritarian personality theory holds that a psychological structure, not objective circumstances, determines fascist character — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1780; Authoritarian thinking features closed-mindedness, rigidity, and intolerance of ambiguity — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 469 (+8 more)

Broader Connections

• Fearfulness and threat orientation, not repressed aggression, drive authoritarianism #complicates (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2487
• Authoritarian personality traits trace to insecurity, anxiety, and threat #complicates (0.72) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2430