High-authoritarians ignore obvious pandering and believe dishonest politicians are sincere

Evidence

This experiment did not produce as much attribution error as the homosexual-rights studies. (Do you believe politicians who courageously come out in agreement with strong public opinion?) But the pattern of the FAE below will look familiar. … Authoritarians again made more attribution errors in both cases. Unlike Lows, who were particularly suspicious of someone they knew had strong political reasons for telling them what they wanted to hear, Highs were astoundingly gullible. They basically ignored the politician’s knowledge of the 90% poll and believed the law-and-order candidate was sincere. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1425

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Fundamental Attribution Error literature and to modern concerns about authoritarian voters’ gullibility toward populist politicians.
• SEED: Article angle: how the gullibility of high-RWA voters makes them the natural target for cynical political campaigns — a mechanism for why demagogues win.