High-RWA males show elevated rates of sexual assault against women.

Evidence

When asked to play judge and pass sentence on convicted criminals, they tend to lower the boom, just as they deliver more powerful shocks when serving as a teacher in a mini-Milgram experiment. They are relatively ready to help the government persecute almost any group you can think of—including themselves! Furthermore, Walker and Quinsey (1991) and Walker, Rowe, and Quinsey (1993) found that High RWA males were more likely to have sexually assaulted women. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 917

This summary does not paint a pretty picture of right-wing authoritarians, and it only gets worse when you add in findings by other researchers, such as High men’s greater tendency to assault women sexually (Walker, Rowe, and Quinsey, 1993). — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3770

Categorization

• QUESTION: Causal direction unclear — does authoritarianism predispose to assault, or does a general punitive/dominance orientation underlie both?
• SHARE: For anyone studying the dark-triad/punitive-disposition literature, this Walker & Quinsey finding on RWA and sexual assault is a striking data point.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 917; Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 3770