Imagined left-wing upheaval sharply raises projected authoritarianism

Evidence

First, as a control condition, university students who had already completed the RWA Scale were asked to reanswer the test, imagining they were twenty years older, well off, and the parents of teen-aged children. Overall, they imagined they would become a little more authoritarian as a result. Then, in another condition, I also threw in economic turmoil in Canada twenty years ahead accompanied by a violent left-wing upheaval. Students’ role-played RWA scores shot up nearly three times as much as the control groups had. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1173