High authoritarians maintain inflated self-images by avoiding unpleasant truths

Evidence

In 1992-93 I asked this question of 493 students serving anonymously in three different studies. Of the 115 Lows, 76% said yes, they wanted to know if it turned out they were more prejudiced than most. But only 55% of the 123 Highs wanted to know (p < .001). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1862 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

A DOUBLE STANDARD IN LOWS TOO? Low RWAs could have shown double standards as easily as Highs in the three criminal assault cases, the unfair election practices case, and the Quebec separation experiments. But they were hardly placed in jeopardy in the Christian- Islam-Judaism schooling studies. Lows do not endorse teaching religion in the public schools in their own society, so they can hardly look hypocritical opposing it in another country. … To “catch” Lows being more hypocritical than Highs, you have to turn the tables and put them in conflict over something they believe in. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1548 (#complicates, via linked claim)

The prejudiced personality, which like Adorno et al. (1950) he also referred to as the “authoritarian personality,” was someone for whom prejudice was psychologically functional and a direct response to deep-rooted underlying needs in the personality. At the core of this prejudiced personality were a set of traits Allport summed up as “ego weakness” – insecurity, fearfulness, anxiety and an inability to cope effectively with one’s own inner tensions, conflicts, and anxieties, or with uncertainty, threat, change, and ambiguity in the external world. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2429 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Pseudo-existential self-struggle is staged inwardness that masks authoritarian conformity. — Theodor W. Adorno, Minima Moralia: Reflections from…, 158; The self-styled realists are the truly insane ones; Authoritarians are gullible toward candidates who say what they want to hear (+13 more)

Broader Connections

• High authoritarians avoid learning they are more prejudiced than most peers #exemplifies (0.93) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1862
• Low authoritarians show same hypocrisy bias when tested on their own beliefs #complicates (0.82) — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1548
• Authoritarian prejudice springs from ego weakness and unresolved inner conflict #complicates (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2429
• Authoritarians are not personally maladjusted; their fear is learned belief #complicates (0.75) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2452