The Berkeley authoritarianism study repeated the Weimar worker study’s instinctual-structure question for American democrats

Evidence

In Fromm’s introduction to the questionnaire section of the Studies on Authority and the Family, the primary methodological goal of the research was stated to have been to raise and formulate questions'based on a psychological theory and to be pursued with experimental methodsfrom which answers can be expected which will allow us to draw conclusions about the unconscious desires and thus about the instinctual structure of the person asked’. … The Institute’s study on the working class in Weimar Germany proved in retrospect to have been an attempt to answer the question of how firmly the socialist views taken by the working class were anchored in instinctual structure, and how far the workers could be relied upon to stand by their left-wing views in crisis situations. The Berkeley group’s research directed itself more and more clearly towards a moderatedone might almost say, more modestvariation on the same problem, namely the question of how firmly the democratic views of people in the United States were anchored in individual personality structure, and how far they could be relied on to stand by their democratic views in crisis situations. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1590

Categorization

• XREF: Direct through-line from the Weimar Institute worker research to The Authoritarian Personality — the Berkeley group explicitly reframed Horkheimer’s instinct theory question for US democracy. — connects to: The US democracy study restated the Weimar worker study’s question for American democratic loyalty — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1591; The Berkeley study first united Frankfurt theory with empirical research — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1759; American occupation officials promoted opinion research as a tool of democratic function. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 1926

Broader Connections

• The Berkeley study first united Frankfurt theory with empirical research #expands (0.82) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 1759