Table Of ContentThe Authoritarian Specter
The Authoritarian Specter
BOB ALTEME YER
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
London, England
1996
To M. Brewster Smith
Copyright © 1996 by the President and Fellows
of Harvard College
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Permission has been granted by Oxford University
Press to quote from C. D. Batson and W. L. Ventis,
The Religious Experience: A Social Psychological
Perspective (1982).
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Altemeyer, Bob, 1940-
The authoritarian specter / Bob Altemeyer,
pcm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-674-05305-2 (alk. paper)
1. Authoritarianism. 2. Fascism. 3. Right-
wing extremists. 4. Right and left (Political
science)
JC481.A48 1993
320.5'3—dce20 96-21389
Acknowledgments
THE
ENG eS cINp
EE This book ratchets up the number of publications on my curriculum vita to nearly
E ENaC double digits. And I have been an academic for only 30 years. A colleague, noting this
R furious pace, once urged me to slow down. I thought he was worried about my “Type
N A” personality. But he explained that he did not think I really had that much to say.
Fortunately, many people near and dear encouraged me to persevere. When my wife,
R
E Jean, learned I had written a third book, she joyfully exclaimed, ‘““Why?” Seeing I was
R determined, she suggested a title: Yet Another Book about Authoritarianism: Still More
e
Studies, Trudging along Like the Seven Dwarfs to the References and Index. When 1
Soar pointed out the first part of this title would abbreviate to “YABAA” and that people
might then confuse me with Fred Flintstone, she realized the likely misidentification.
“Fred would also buy his clothes from Mr. Short and Dumpy,” she conceded.
However, one of my former acquisition editors responded to my new manuscript as
follows: “You already have two books ... don’t cause trees to be cut for the sake of
‘stubborn vision.’ ”
I then showed the manuscript to a dear friend who so liked my last book, he read
it aloud to his wife each night when they went to bed. He encouraged me to seek a
publisher; he also told me his wife has left him.
More comforting, Jean and I have become friends with a couple who once asked
about my research, so I now tell them ail my findings. In turn, they keep inviting me
to go on wilderness canoe trips with them, even though they know I cannot swim. I
think they want to show their appreciation.
I was mightily buoyed when I saw that, even thoughI began publishing my discoveries
only fifteen years ago, they have already been reported in a textbook: David Martin’s
introductory Psychology: Principles and Applications. I was so thrilled, I went right
next door to Dave’s office and thanked him. I even paid him the money I borrowed in.
1983. I hope that someday Dave will write a text for personality or social psychology
courses, so my work might get mentioned to students in these fields too.
vi Acknowledgments
A number of people have written me asking how to get a copy of my first book, the
one published fifteen years ago. It is supposedly out of print. But the publisher still has
seventeen copies left that it will gladly sell. And I have the other three.
I think one reason my work has gone unappreciated is that most people already knew
everything I have discovered. I had a good demonstration of this one night when a
fellow professor, from the humanities, stated that authoritarianism was obviously
caused by one’s upbringing. I told him that some researchers had evidence now that it
is caused by our genes. He quickly responded. ‘Of course, one intuitively knows this.”
Some people’s intuitions led them to ask whether my research is secretly funded by
the Left- Wing Eastern-Establishment Communist-Front Atheistic-Subversive Un-Amer-
ican Foundation. However, I have not had a research grant since 1971. I mainly cover
expenses by having my university set aside part of my pay check as a “grant in lieu of
salary.” But one year, when IJ requested that $6,400 be devoted to this, the university
would allocate only $6,000. Their attitude seemed to be, “Nobody should spend $6,400
on your research, not even you.”
This brings up the sticky subject of my lack of promotion. I rose rather quickly to
the rank of associate professor by—coincidentally—1971, but have gone no farther in
the twenty-five years since. Most of my former Ph.D. students now outrank me. (Well,
all of them do, if you count the one who’s a prison warden.) They do not rub it in. But
my university keeps sending me announcements of Retirement Planning workshops.
I have done research with my first Ph.D. student, Bruce Hunsberger, for many years
now and Bruce could easily be coauthor of Chapter 6 in this book. So if you do not
like that chapter, blame him. (To give credit where credit is due, it was Bruce who came
up with “Mr. Short and Dumpy.” Somehow, he has become quite sassy since receiving
his Ph.D.)
As for the rest of the book, as usual any mistakes are someone else’s fault.
Lewis Goldberg complained that I did not mention him in the Acknowledgments of
my last book. He says he is my “‘biggest fan.” I told him flattery would get him nowhere.
Since I have promised everyone, including the trees, that this will be my. last book on
authoritarianism, I should say a few appreciative words about the advantages I have
had in life. I was born white and male in the richest country in the world. It was also
a free country, especially for people like me, because others had given their lives to
make it so. J attended a great university where a great teacher, Chris Argyris, changed
my life. I married an almost “perfect match.” Within a few years of receiving my Ph.D.,
I was granted tenure and have spent the rest of my life teaching and studying whatever
interested me. I never lived through a Depression. I always knew where my next dollar
was coming from, and it always came. I was never called to war, and neither was any
of our children. I owe a lot. I have used up far more than my fair share of the earth’s
resources, and an even larger chunk of my local Introductory Psychology subject pool
(undoubtedly the biggest asset I have had as a scholar besides the scientific method).
Among my blessings has been a long friendship with M. Brewster Smith, who has
served as my mentor al! the way to my fifty-sixth birthday. (When you’re my mentor,
the job takes the rest of your life.) Without his support, you would be reading something
Acknowledgments _ vii
else now. He has encouraged many other researchers as well, and become one of the
great persons in contemporary psychology.
If you are ever in Brewster’s office, you will find hanging on its walls most of the
honors and awards that psychologists give. Mine is quite minor in comparison, but the
best I can do. I gratefully dedicate this book to him.
I am grateful to Linda Howe at Harvard University Press for supporting this book
during the acquisition phase. Clover Archer did a fine job drawing the illustrations,
especially the one on p. 292 that nearly did her in. Elizabeth Hurwit had the thankless
job of editing the manuscript of an author who thinks that every word he writes, even
when misspelled, is perfect. By the end I had a deep appreciation of her gifts and friend-
ship. As production editor, Kate Brick competently turned that manuscript into the
volume before you now.
Contents
Introduction: Twenty Stories
Previous Research on Right-Wing Authoritarianism
Studying Authoritarianism: Research Methodology and
Methodology Research
50
The Personal Origins of Right-Wing Authoritarianism
69
W
The Cognitive Behavior of Authoritarians |
fh 93
Inconsistency and Blindness in the Authoritarian Mind
114
N
H Authoritarianism and Religion 146
Sex and the Single Authoritarian
167
N
O Dogmatism 191
Left-Wing Authoritarianism
216
o
10 The Effects of Hate Literature 235
The Authoritarianism of Legislators in North America
258
Conclusion: A Few Last Words on the Subject 299
Notes 309
References 351
Index 364
