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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Authoritarian Personality | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Authoritarian_Personality | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:56:14.203855+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Responses == The Authoritarian Personality inspired extensive research in psychology, sociology, and political science during the 1950s and early 1960s on the relation between personality traits, behavior, and political beliefs. The Authoritarian Personality has often provoked polarized responses: "The Berkeley study of authoritarian personality does not leave many people indifferent". The study "has been subjected to considerable criticism" since the 1950s, particularly for various methodological flaws, including sample bias and poor psychometric techniques. In 1973, Gaensslen et al. found that a dogmatism scale containing anxiety items is methodologically questionable. In 1980, sociologist J.J. Ray argued that the project of The Authoritarian Personality was "obviously false" noting authoritarians on both ends of the political spectrum.:40 Ray criticized the study for not asking questions regarding libertarian politics (which according to Ray are typically more anti-authoritarian than right-wing politics);:41 for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian/right-wing beliefs are correlated with psychopathology; and, most importantly, for failing to demonstrate that authoritarian beliefs are associated with authoritarian behavior. In 1993, over a decade later, the latter point was also criticized by Billings et al. Milton Rokeach proposed adding an open/closed mindedness dimension of politics.:40 The book concludes that right-wing, authoritarian governments produce hostility towards racial, religious, or ethnic minorities. Psychologist Bob Altemeyer argued against that conclusion, saying that Fascist Italy was not characterized by antisemitism, and that Jews occupied high positions in Mussolini's government until pressure from Hitler disenfranchised these Jews. Rubenstein's research in Israel revealed that Orthodox Jews scored higher on right wing politics and authoritarianism as traits than Reform Jews, and that both groups scored higher than Secular Jews. However, it cannot be said that there is no relationship between traits of Right-Wing Authoritarians and antisemitism. In fact, Adorno's nine traits of the "F scale" are rather general and have been thought to identify fascist as well as anti-Semitic individual attributes. The fact that Rubenstein himself affirms that "the results confirm the validity of the RWA" represents a particularly interesting outcome: Orthodox and Reform Jews in Israel are classified closer to the fascist and anti-Semitic traits, as thought in 1950 by Adorno et al., compared to Secular Jews in Israel. Some observers have criticized what they saw as a strongly politicized agenda to The Authoritarian Personality. Conservative social critic Christopher Lasch argued that by equating mental health with left-wing politics and associating right-wing politics with an invented "authoritarian" pathology, the book's goal was to eliminate antisemitism by "subjecting the American people to what amounted to collective psychotherapy—by treating them as inmates of an insane asylum". The Authoritarian Personality remains widely cited in the social sciences and continues to inspire research interest today. Hyman and Sheatsley 1954 "Our major criticisms lead us inevitably to conclude that the authors' theory has not been proved by the data they cite". Brown 2004 "The most serious defects in the questionnaire work are the inadequate sampling methods and the operation of response sets. [In spite of that] there is a substantial residual probability that the chief conclusion of the questionnaire work is correct: attitudes of Anti-Semitism, ethnocentrism, and authoritarianism do generally go together. [...] some of the findings of the questionnaire study were replicated in the projectives study, and while this latter work has its own deficiencies, some account must be taken for the convergence in the two sets of data." "Perhaps the least well supported of all the findings in the Berkeley study are those concerning the genesis of authoritarianism in childhood. [...] However, Frenkel-Brunswik has directly studied prejudice in childhood and adolescence. She reports confirmation of most of the original findings." Christie and Cook 1958 Christie and Cook (1958) cite 230 titles relating to The Authoritarian Personality and they conclude that: "...the overall picture shows consistency of findings in many of the most intensively studied areas. The E and F scales are found to be significantly correlated in a wide array of samples and predictions of relationships with attitudinal measures are almost invariably confirmed"
== See also == Ambiguity tolerance Authoritarian personality Narcissistic personality disorder Right-wing authoritarianism Psychohistory The Mass Psychology of Fascism
== References == Notes
Citations
== Further reading == Adorno, Theodor; Frenkel-Brunswik, Else; Levinson, Daniel; Sanford, Nevitt (1993) [1950]. The Authoritarian Personality. Studies in Prejudice Series. Vol. 1. New York City: Harper & Row and W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-31112-0.. Altemeyer, Bob (1988). Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 978-1-55542-097-0. Altemeyer, Bob (1996). The Authoritarian Specter. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-05305-2. Altemeyer, Bob (2006). "The Authoritarians" (PDF). Retrieved 13 October 2007. Christie, Richard; Jahoda, Marie, eds. (1954). Studies in the Scope and Method of 'The Authoritarian Personality'. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press. ASIN B000LZ1YXG. Gerhardt, Christina. "The Authoritarian Personality: Then and Now." The Routledge International Handbook of Perpetrator Studies. Eds. Zachary Goldberg and Susanne Knittel. Routledge, 2019. 61–73. Jost, John T.; Glaser, Jack; Kruglanski, Arie W.; Sulloway, Frank J. (2003). "Political conservatism as motivated social cognition" (PDF). Psychological Bulletin. 129 (3): 339–375. doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.3.339. PMID 12784934. Martin, John Levi (2001). "The Authoritarian Personality, 50 Years Later: What Questions Are There for Political Psychology?". Political Psychology. 22 (1): 1–26. doi:10.1111/0162-895X.00223. JSTOR 3791902. McClosky, Herbert; Chong, Dennis (1985). "Similarities and Differences between Left-Wing and Right-Wing Radicals". British Journal of Political Science. 15 (3): 329–363. doi:10.1017/S0007123400004221. JSTOR 193697. S2CID 154330828. Shils, Edward (1954). "Authoritarianism: "Right" and "Left"". In Christie, Richard; Jahoda, Marie (eds.). Studies in the Scope and Method of 'The Authoritarian personality'. Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press. ASIN B000LZ1YXG.
== External links == 1969 edition available to borrow on Open Library