The Authoritarian Specter PDF
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The 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
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