The "authoritarian personality"
"The authoritarian personality is a personality type characterized by a disposition to treat authority figures with unquestioning obedience and respect."
"Altemeyer used the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale to quantify personality traits of authoritarian people. The political type identified with the RWA scale indicates 3 psychological tendencies characteristic of the authoritarian personality:
(i) Submission to legitimate authorities;
(ii) Aggression towards minority groups whom authorities identified as targets for sanctioned political violence; and
(iii) Adherence to cultural values and political beliefs endorsed by the authorities"
"Hetherington and Weiler describe the authoritarian personality as one that has a greater need for order, and less willingness to tolerate ambiguity as well as a tendency to rely on established authorities to provide that order.
They acknowledge that while everyone seeks to bring some semblance of order to their world, non-authoritarian personalities are more likely to use concepts like fairness and equality, ...
... instead of the time-honored texts, conventions or leaders that are more common among authoritarian personalities.
*They also note that almost everyone becomes more authoritarian when they feel threat, anxiety or fatigue, as the emotional, reactive parts of the brain crowd out cognitive abilities.* "
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_Left-wing authoritarians share key psychological traits with far right, Emory study finds_
https://news.emory.edu/stories/2021/09/esc_left_wing_authoritarians_psychology/campus.html
"Right-wing authoritarians tend to aggressively back the established hierarchy, while left-wing authoritarians tend to aggressively oppose it. They are almost like mirror images of one another that both share a common psychological core, the researchers conclude."
“Authoritarians have a predisposition for liking sameness and opposing differences among people in their environment,” Costello says. “They are submissive to people they perceive as authority figures, they are dominant and aggressive towards people they disagree with, and they are careful to obey what they consider the norms for their respective groups.”
At its core, authoritarianism is likely about power, Costello adds.
...
...
“It’s a mistake to think of authoritarianism as a right-wing concept, as some researchers have in the past,” he says. “We found that ideology becomes secondary. Psychologically speaking, you’re an authoritarian first, and an ideologue only as it serves the power structure that you support.”
In addition to the striking similarities between the two political extremes, the research also highlighted a key difference between the two: Left-wing authoritarians were more likely to perceive the world as a dangerous place and experience intense emotions and a sense of uncontrollability in response to stress. Right-wing authoritarians were more cognitively rigid, less open to new experiences, and less likely to believe in science.
@jmcrookston
What exactly is this "science" you're talking about?
