Authoritarianism springs from a worldview that the social world is dangerous and threatening

Evidence

Well so what? What is so bad about Highs being a little sloppy in their use of terms? Well, it is more serious than that; the “biggest problem” data speak to more than just imprecision in the authoritarian mind. High RWAs stand about ten steps closer to the panic button than the rest of the population. They see the world as a more dangerous place than most others do, with civilization on the verge of collapse and the world of Mad Max looming just beyond. As we saw earlier, their parents taught them the world was dangerous, and the resulting fear drives a lot of their aggression. Ask the militias training in the woods. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1290 (#expands, via linked claim)

This dual-process cognitive motivational model proposes that RWA and SDO are two basic dimensions of social or ideological attitudes with each expressing motivational goals or values made chronically salient for individuals by their social worldviews and their personalities (Duckitt, 2001). High RWA expresses the motivational goal of establishing or maintaining social cohesion, stability, and security, which is made salient by seeing the social world as dangerous and threatening. The predisposing personality dimension is social conformity, which leads individuals to identify with the existing social order, be more sensitive to threats to it, and so to see the social world as dangerous and threatening. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2474 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Four recent studies using structural equation modeling with latent variables showed excellent overall fit for the causal relationships proposed among the two personality, two worldview, two ideological attitude dimensions, with each other and with intergroup attitudes for large samples in New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA (Duckitt, 2001; Duckitt et al., 2002). An experiment showed that manipulating social threat (using scenarios) increased RWA, but not SDO, with the effect being entirely mediated through a change in social worldview towards an increased perception of the social world as dangerous and threatening (Duckitt & Fisher, 2003). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2480 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Societal threat causally drives authoritarianism rather than merely co-occurring with it. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology: Key Readings, 832; US historical threat spikes raised measurable societal authoritarianism; Authoritarians perceive the world as far more dangerous than others do — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1290 (+14 more)

Broader Connections

• Authoritarians perceive the world as far more dangerous than others do #expands (0.95) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1290
• Authoritarianism stems from a conformist personality reading the world as dangerous. #corroborates (0.93) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2474
• Experimentally induced social threat raises authoritarianism via changed threat worldview #corroborates (0.92) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2480