Right-Wing Authoritarianism

Altemeyer begins with a close examination of the existing scientific literature on right-wing authoritarianism, surveying the history of social psychological research on the subject and arguing that the earlier tradition rested on conceptual and methodological weaknesses. He gives particular attention to the response set issue, the tendency of people answering questionnaires to reply in patterned ways that distort what a scale actually measures. In place of the older framework he sets out his own conceptualisation of right-wing authoritarianism and offers it as a more fruitful direction for future work. He then puts that conceptualisation to a test of construct validity, comparing his Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale against five other authoritarian scales to see which behaves as a coherent measure of the trait. Later chapters explore the dynamics and covariates of right-wing authoritarianism, asking what beliefs and behaviours the disposition travels with, and offer exploratory findings on its origins in upbringing and experience. The book closes with what the publisher calls a disturbing comment on the pervasiveness of authoritarian behaviour in our society, the argument being that the disposition the scale measures is far more common than readers might assume, and that studying it properly requires the sounder measurement the volume proposes.

Written from the publisher description, University of Manitoba Press.

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• Bob Altemeyer