Threat shifts moderate and low authoritarians most, not the already-high

Evidence

I should note that in the many scenarios in which I found the role-players became more authoritarian, the High RWA subjects did not go up all that much. (They already believed the world teetered on the edge of chaos.) Instead, the Moderate and Low RWA students jumped up the most. Perhaps they would only become more authoritarian temporarily. But “temporarily” was all Hitler needed to seize power and eventually plunge the world into the most murderous war of all time. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1183

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: Undermines the intuition that fascism needs a base of already-authoritarian citizens — the swing of moderates is decisive and sufficient.