Perceived authoritative sanction disinhibits authoritarian aggression.

Evidence

Aggression is authoritarian when it is accompanied by the belief that proper authority approves it or that it will help preserve such authority. The predisposition to such aggression does not mean that authoritarians will always act aggressively when opportunities arise. Fear of retaliation may stop them, as may the legal and social prohibitions against aggression in our culture. This is where the perception of authoritative sanction plays its role. It can disinhibit the aggressive impulse. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 146

Categorization

• XREF: Channels Milgram’s obedience findings — the authority-sanction mechanism is the same disinhibition that allowed ordinary people to administer lethal shocks. — connects to: Situational deference to authority, not coercion, drives obedience to mass-murder regimes — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 46
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 146