Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Prejudice

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Core Idea

Right-wing authoritarianism is characterized by strong deference to established authority, strict adherence to traditional group norms, and aggression toward those perceived as threatening group values or deviating from norms. This personality dimension strongly predicts prejudice against multiple outgroups and is conceptually distinct from social dominance orientation—authoritarian individuals emphasize loyalty to ingroup authority while SDO emphasizes hierarchy itself.

How It's Best Learned

Examine how authoritarianism and SDO independently predict prejudice, sometimes in opposite directions for specific targets, to understand that different personality ideologies drive prejudice through different psychological mechanisms.

Common Misconceptions

Students think authoritarianism is purely about obedience to any authority; actually, it involves strong identification with and conformity to one's own ingroup's traditional authority and norms, with hostility directed at outgroups perceived as threatening those traditions.

Explainer

Your study of prejudice and discrimination established the basic phenomenon: people form negative attitudes toward outgroups and treat their members unequally. But not all people are equally prejudiced, and not all prejudice targets the same groups. Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), as formulated by Bob Altemeyer, offers one of the strongest individual-difference predictors of generalized prejudice — the tendency to be prejudiced against many different outgroups simultaneously. Understanding it requires seeing it not as simple obedience but as a particular relationship with one's ingroup's social order.

RWA is defined by three correlated clusters. Authoritarian submission is deference to established authorities within one's own group — political leaders, religious institutions, traditional social hierarchies. Authoritarian aggression is the endorsement of punitive treatment toward people who violate group norms or who are perceived as deviant, dangerous, or threatening to the group's values. Conventionalism is strong adherence to the norms and morality endorsed by the ingroup's authorities. Notice that all three components are oriented around the *ingroup's* authority structure, not authority in general. A high-RWA individual is not submissive to all authority figures — they may actively resist authorities who challenge their group's traditional values. The defining feature is loyalty to one's own group's established order.

This is why RWA predicts broad-spectrum prejudice: any group perceived as threatening traditional values or flouting group norms becomes a target of authoritarian aggression. Empirically, high-RWA individuals show more prejudice against racial minorities, sexual minorities, immigrants, and people with criminal records — groups that vary enormously in their actual characteristics but share the property of being perceived (in certain cultural contexts) as threats to traditional social order. Threat perception is the psychological link: RWA predicts prejudice most strongly when the outgroup is framed as dangerous or immoral.

The conceptual distinction from social dominance orientation (SDO) — which you will encounter in the builds-toward topics — sharpens the picture. SDO is about endorsing group-based hierarchy itself: the belief that some groups should dominate others. SDO predicts prejudice through a different mechanism (support for inequality) and targets different groups (particularly low-status groups, regardless of perceived threat). Authoritarian individuals emphasize moral conformity and norm protection; socially dominant individuals emphasize status hierarchy. For some targets these predict prejudice in the same direction; for others they diverge. Understanding the two mechanisms separately explains why prejudice is not a single, unified phenomenon but a cluster of related attitudes driven by distinct underlying motivations.

Practice Questions 5 questions

Prerequisite Chain

Counting to 10 → Counting to 20 → Understanding Zero → The Number Zero → Counting to Five → One-to-One Correspondence → Combining Small Groups Within 5 → Addition Within 10 → Addition Within 20 → Two-Digit Addition Without Regrouping → Two-Digit Addition with Regrouping → Addition Within 100 → Repeated Addition as Multiplication → Multiplication Facts Within 100 → Division as Equal Sharing → Division as Grouping (Measurement Division) → Division: Grouping (Repeated Subtraction) Model → Division: Fair Sharing Model → Division as Equal Sharing → Division as Grouping → Basic Division Facts → Division Facts Within 100 → Two-Digit by One-Digit Division → Division with Remainders → Remainders and Quotients in Division → Division Word Problems → Introduction to Long Division → Factors and Multiples → Prime and Composite Numbers → Equivalent Fractions → Relating Fractions and Decimals → Decimal Place Value → Reading and Writing Decimals → Comparing and Ordering Decimals → Adding and Subtracting Decimals → Multiplying Decimals → Dividing Decimals → Dividing Fractions → Mixed Number Arithmetic → Order of Operations → Integer Order of Operations → Variable Expressions → Combining Like Terms → One-Step Equations → Two-Step Equations → Solving Multi-Step Equations → Equations with Variables on Both Sides → Angle Pairs: Complementary, Supplementary, and Vertical → Parallel Lines and Transversals → Corresponding Angles → Alternate Interior Angles → Triangle Angle Sum Theorem → Exterior Angle Theorem → Triangle Inequality Theorem → Similar Triangles: AA Similarity → Similar Triangles: SSS and SAS Similarity → Proportions in Similar Triangles → Right Triangle Trigonometry Introduction → Trigonometric Ratios Review → Radian Measure → Converting Between Degrees and Radians → The Unit Circle → Graphing Sine and Cosine → Graphing Tangent and Reciprocal Trigonometric Functions → Derivatives of Trigonometric Functions → Antiderivatives → Iterated Integrals and Fubini's Theorem → Double Integrals in Cartesian Coordinates → Double Integrals over Rectangular Regions → Double Integrals in Polar Coordinates → Double Integrals: Definition and Setup → Iterated Integrals and Fubini's Theorem → Double Integrals over Rectangular Regions → Double Integrals over General Regions → Applications of Double Integrals: Area, Mass, and Moments → Triple Integrals in Cartesian Coordinates → Triple Integrals in Cylindrical and Spherical Coordinates → Change of Variables and the Jacobian Determinant → Applications of Triple Integrals: Volume and Mass → Vector Fields and Their Representations → Line Integrals of Vector Fields → Green's Theorem → Surface Integrals and Flux of Vector Fields → Surface Integrals and Flux of Vector Fields → Divergence Theorem: Flux and Outflow → Divergence Theorem → Electric Flux → Gauss's Law → Conductors in Electrostatic Equilibrium → Capacitance and Capacitors → Dielectrics → Dielectric Constant and Relative Permittivity → Electric Field Inside Dielectric Materials → Dielectric Materials and Polarization → Dielectric Susceptibility and Permittivity → Energy Density in Electric Fields → Electric Current and Current Density → Electrical Resistance and Resistivity → Ohm's Law and Circuit Elements → Electromotive Force (EMF) and Batteries → Kirchhoff's Circuit Laws: Voltage and Current → DC Circuit Network Analysis Methods → Transient Response in RC Circuits → RC Circuits → LC and RLC Circuits → AC Circuits: Fundamentals → Impedance and Reactance → AC Power and Resonance → Electromagnetic Waves → The Electromagnetic Spectrum → Blackbody Radiation and Planck's Law → Photoelectric Effect → The Photon: Light as Quanta → Compton Scattering → Wave-Particle Duality → de Broglie Wavelength → Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle → Wavefunction and the Born Rule → The Schrödinger Equation → State Vectors and Wavefunctions → Quantum Superposition → Quantum Entanglement → Bell Theorem and Bell Inequalities → Postulates of Quantum Mechanics → Scattering Theory → Introduction to Scattering Theory → Partial Wave Analysis in Scattering → Spin Angular Momentum → Electron Spin and Intrinsic Magnetic Moment → Stern-Gerlach Experiment: Spin Quantization and Measurement → Electron Diffraction and Matter Wave Properties → Davisson-Germer Experiment: Crystal Diffraction of Electrons → Electron Diffraction and Matter Wave Interference → Wavefunctions and Probability Density Interpretation → Quantum Superposition and Linear Combinations of States → Quantum Operators and Observables → Canonical Commutation Relations and Uncertainty → Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and Measurement Limits → Time-Independent Schrödinger Equation and Eigenvalues → Hydrogen Atom in Quantum Mechanics → Spectral Lines and Energy Transitions → Selection Rules for Atomic Transitions → LS and jj Coupling Schemes in Multi-Electron Atoms → Pauli Exclusion Principle and Antisymmetric Wavefunctions → Electron Configuration and the Aufbau Principle → The Periodic Table and Atomic Electronic Structure → The Periodic Table → Electron Configuration → Periodic Trends → Ionization Energy → Ionic Bonding → Lewis Structures → Resonance Structures and Delocalized Electrons → Resonance and Formal Charge → Molecular Polarity and Dipole Moments → Intermolecular Forces → States of Matter and Phase Changes: Melting, Boiling, and Sublimation → Gas Laws and the Ideal Gas Equation → Gas Stoichiometry and Volume-Volume Calculations → Thermochemistry and Enthalpy → Heat Capacity and Calorimetry → Entropy and Molecular Disorder → Spontaneity and ΔG → Entropy and Gibbs Free Energy → Chemical Equilibrium → Acid-Base Chemistry → Organic Reaction Mechanisms and Arrow Pushing → SN2 Substitution Reactions → SN1 Substitution Reactions → E1 Elimination Reactions → Alcohols and Ethers: Structure, Properties, and Nomenclature → Reactions of Alcohols → Aldehydes and Ketones: Structure and Reactivity → Nucleophilic Addition to Aldehydes and Ketones → Carboxylic Acids and Their Derivatives → Nucleophilic Acyl Substitution → Amines: Structure, Basicity, and Reactions → Amine Reactivity: Nucleophilicity and Basicity → Amino Acid Structure and Properties → Amino Acid Classification and Biochemical Properties → Protein Primary Structure → Protein Secondary Structure → Protein Tertiary Structure → Ion Channels and Selective Permeability Mechanisms → Sensory Receptor Transduction and Adaptation → Sensory Transduction and Encoding → Sensory Pathways Overview → Selective Attention → Divided Attention and Dual-Task Performance → Distributed Networks of Attention → Spatial Attention and Posterior Parietal Cortex → Prefrontal-Parietal Attention Networks and Control → Executive Control Networks and the Prefrontal Cortex → Neuroeconomics and Value Computation → Neural Mechanisms of Decision-Making → Working Memory Neural Circuits → Memory Encoding and Levels of Processing → Semantic Memory and Network Models → Mental Models in Understanding and Reasoning → Problem Representation and Solution Search → Expert Cognition and Knowledge Organization → Schemas and Knowledge Organization → Social Cognition → Impression Formation and Cognitive Integration → Attribution Theory and Causal Judgment → Correspondence Bias and Situational Underestimation → Self-Serving Bias → Prejudice and Discrimination → Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Prejudice

Longest path: 209 steps · 1182 total prerequisite topics

Prerequisites (1)

Prejudice and Discriminationhard

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