University education lowers authoritarianism, most among high scorers

Evidence

RWA scores were obtained from 26 liberal arts majors (excluding psychology), 32 commerce majors, and 18 nursing students who were about to graduate. All had filled out the RWA Scale when they first entered university nearly four years earlier. Lo and behold, their authoritarianism had dropped significantly over the interval in all programs, about 11% overall, with the liberal arts students dropping more than the others. Freshman High RWAs dropped more than twice as much over the years as the freshman Lows did. — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1109

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the broader literature on education reducing prejudice and dogmatism, and to the author’s own social dominance orientation work. — connects to: West German students showed more authoritarian than democratic latent political potential — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School: Its History,…, 2349; University professors are highly conformist and suppress views conflicting with their academy’s beliefs — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 129; Higher education amplifies science rejection among politically conservative Americans — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 141 (+1 more)
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Bob Altemeyer, The Authoritarian Specter, 1109