Societal threat causally drives authoritarianism rather than merely co-occurring with it.

Evidence

Whereas both of Sales’s studies analyzed the transition from periods of low threat to periods of high threat and found increases in levels of authoritarian behavior, our study examined the reverse sequence and found decreases in authoritarian attitudes and behavior. This strengthens the argument in favor of a causal link between societal threat and authoritarianism by helping to rule out the possibility that societal measures of authoritarianism simply increase over time because of expanding population, economic growth, or other secular trends unrelated to threat levels. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 832

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Societal-level authoritarianism rises and falls with social threat levels — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 732; Perceived threat directly raises authoritarianism but not social dominance.; Authoritarianism springs from a worldview that the social world is dangerous and threatening (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Rising social threat shifts whole populations toward authoritarian attitudes. #corroborates (0.88)
• Societal-level authoritarianism rises and falls with social threat levels #corroborates (0.85) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 732
• Perceived threat directly raises authoritarianism but not social dominance. #corroborates (0.85)
• Experimentally induced social threat raises authoritarianism via changed threat worldview #corroborates (0.85) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2480
• Causal dynamics of authoritarianism cannot be established by correlation alone #responds-to (0.85)
• Authoritarianism rises during threatening historical periods and falls in calm ones #corroborates (0.85)
• Authoritarianism springs from a worldview that the social world is dangerous and threatening #corroborates (0.80)
• US historical threat spikes raised measurable societal authoritarianism #exemplifies (0.80)
• Authoritarian ideology and national threat mutually reinforce each other #complicates (0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1506
• Hyping a dangerous world drives populations toward authoritarian leaders #expands (0.80)