Authoritarianism rises during threatening historical periods and falls in calm ones

Evidence

As a follow-up to Sales’s (1973) study relating behavioral indicators of authoritarianism to levels of social threat, the present research analyzed archival data from the United States for high-threat (1978–1982) and low-threat (1983–1987) periods. Societal measures of most attitude and behavioral components of the authoritarian syndrome significantly decreased between the high-threat and the low-threat periods. These results support the threat-authoritarianism relationship but also suggest a more complicated theoretical model that links perceived social conditions, arousal of authoritarian sentiments, dispositional authoritarianism, and the nature of political appeals—particularly those that engage authoritarian aggression. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 732 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Desperate times favored authoritarian spectacle over socialist equality — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 254; Societal threat causally drives authoritarianism rather than merely co-occurring with it. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 832; A fascist dictatorship is not imminent but the threat to democracy is growing (+10 more)

Broader Connections

• Societal-level authoritarianism rises and falls with social threat levels #expands (0.95) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 732