How to Recognize the Authoritarian Personality

While much has been written regarding the authoritarian personality, most follow authoritarian leaders. More attention should be paid to authoritarian followers. Read on to learn how with information drawn from key contributors on the subject, including Erich Fromm, Theodor Adorno, Bob Altemeyer, and most recently, John W. Dean in his book "Conservatives Without Conscience." This article draws most from Altemeyer's work on Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) in order to define authoritarian personalities.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Critical thinking

1. Recognize the 3 attitudinal clusters that the authoritarian follower exhibits.
   
   1. Submission to authorities.
   2. Aggression toward others that's perceived to be sanctioned by authorities.
   3. Adherence to conventions that are thought to be endorsed by authorities.
2. Recognize the 4 basic personality correlations that shape people with RWA.
   
   1. Faulty Reasoning (lack of critical thinking).
   2. Hostility Toward Other Groups.
   3. Rigid Character Attributes.
   4. Blindness to Failings (of self and authoritarian leaders).
   
   The four following steps will detail these personality traits.
3. Faulty Reasoning.
   
   More often than the average person, people with RWA will:
   
   1. make incorrect inferences from evidence,
   2. hold contradictory ideas via compartmentalized thinking,
   3. accept that many problems are "our most serious problem,"
   4. accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs,
   5. trust people who tell them what they want to hear, and
   6. use double standards in their judgments.
4. Hostility Toward Other Groups.
   
   People with RWA tend to:
   
   1. weaken constitutional liberties such as found in the Bill of Rights,
   2. severely punish "common" criminals in role-playing experiments,
   3. obtain personal pleasure from punishing people,
   4. display prejudice and hostility toward all variety of minorities (not just racial ones),
   5. volunteer to help the government persecute almost anyone, and
   6. be mean-spirited toward those who have made mistakes and suffered.
5. Rigid Character Attributes.
   
   People with RWA are often:
   
   1. dogmatists,
   2. zealots,
   3. hypocrites,
   4. absolutists,
   5. bullies toward "underlings,"
   6. instigators of intergroup conflict, and
   7. seekers of dominance over others even in situations requiring cooperation.
6. Blindness to Failings (of self and authoritarian leaders).
   
   Often people with RWA
   
   1. believe they have no personal failings,
   2. avoid locating their personal failings,
   3. are extremely self-righteous, and
   4. invoke religion to eradicate any personal guilt and to bolster their self-righteousness.

Tips & Warnings

• Ask yourself if you harbor more than just a couple traits of authoritarian personality.
• Of course, if you're willing to ask yourself seriously such a question, that in and of itself might indicate that you're safe!
• This is the gist of one theory on authoritarian personality. There are other ideas, too.