Extreme authoritarians among prisoners were labeled overt fascists for openly endorsing force

Evidence

Twelve of the prisoners were interviewed; of these, eight scored high on the E Scale and four scored relatively low. Among the high scorers there were three subjects whom the researchers characterize as “overt fascists.” These three were not actually members of any self-styled fascist party and so their high scores on all scales cannot be taken as a validation of the characterization of these scales as measures of political fascism. The three subjects were labelled fascist by the authors because they explicitly endorsed the use of force to suppress minorities and to protect business against labor unions. They dispensed with the pseudo-democratic façade that was important to most prejudiced subjects. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 516

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies what ‘overt fascist’ means operationally in the Berkeley study — endorsement of force against minorities and unions without democratic pretense.
• XREF: connects to: Supporters of fascist principles protest against being labeled fascist. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1484