Students role-playing Hitler rated him maximally on every authoritarianism scale

Evidence

To test whether others saw him the same way, I invited students in an introductory psychology class to answer a booklet containing the RWA, SDO, PP-MAD, and E-MAD scales as they thought Adolf Hitler would, “if he were to tell the truth about how he really felt.” … Hitler’s RWA scale answers, as role-played by 50 responding students, equaled 233.0. That amounts to 86% of the maximum possible total of 270 (which no one to my knowledge has ever scored). The students thought Hitler would be even more Social Dominance Oriented, giving him a mean of 116.2 (or 92% of the maximum of 126). Hitler was also seen as being highly PP-MAD, averaging 108.7 or 91% of the maximum 120. His inferred answers to the E-MAD scale also approached the limit, being 153.2 or 85% of the maximum 180. So Adolf Hitler’s image produced a definite “profile” on these four measures: Extraordinarily High. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 1037

Categorization

• SHARE: A psychologist’s students role-played Hitler answering personality scales — a great anecdote for anyone into personality measurement or historical psycholography.
• CANDY: Students imagined Hitler honestly filling out a survey and scored him near the ceiling on every measure — a fun one-liner for a dinner conversation.