We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Authoritarianism and fear responses to pictures: The role of social differences.
- Authors
Butler, J. Corey
- Abstract
Authoritarianism can be defined as the covariation of authoritarian submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism (Altemeyer, 1981). All three of these tendencies involve adherence to specific standards of behavior: standards that could be exposed to threat and disruption. This study is an investigation of the self-reported fear of authoritarians in response to threats. A sample of 126 university students was exposed to a series of pictures of potentially threatening people and situations. In general, participants with high scores on authoritarianism were more fearful than participants with low scores. This result was found for both social threats (i.e., social differences, social disorder) and personal threats (i.e., animals, dangerous situations). The strongest association between authoritarianism and fear involved cases of social differences, defined as elements of a person's appearance or behavior that involve diversity or deviance from common social norms. Regression analyses also indicated that variation in authoritarianism could be best predicted by fear of social differences. Thus, these data suggest that authoritarians are relatively sensitive to threat, and particularly to threats involving the “outsider” who does not fit authoritarian standards of uniformity and order. The data are also consistent with recent research and theory that right-wing ideology is at least partly motivated by threat and fear.
- Subjects
AUTHORITARIAN personality; FEAR; DIFFERENTIATION (Sociology); COLLEGE students; THREAT (Psychology); REGRESSION analysis
- Publication
International Journal of Psychology, 2013, Vol 48, Issue 1, p18
- ISSN
0020-7594
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1080/00207594.2012.698392