Authoritarians apply a biased standard for evidence that favors their beliefs

Evidence

High RWAs do not believe everything they hear. They will reject out of hand “dangerous ideas” from “bad sources.” But they show a hefty double standard when testing for truth: evidence for disagreeable conclusions is scrutinized more critically than evidence supporting what the authoritarian wants to believe. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1298

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to motivated reasoning and confirmation bias literature, and to why disinformation campaigns target pre-disposed audiences. — connects to: Elites manufactured evidence when their professed base stopped believing the goal — Andrew Demshuk, The Lost German East: Forced Migration…, 427; Politicians can disregard evidence openly when partisanship outweighs facts for their voters. — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 80; People evaluate persuasive evidence as biased in favor of their own prior views. — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 139