Authoritarian Followers
by Authoritarian followers and Authoritarian leaders are very different. Authoritarian followers tend to rank high on three behavioural aspects: Submission to Authority, aggression towards those named as targets by Authority, and Conventionalism: strong adherence to the traditions and norms seen to be endorsed by society and its established authorities, and a belief that everyone must adhere to these norms. There are Authoritarians with Leftist political views (certain groups of extreme Socialists come to mind) but measures of Authoritarianism tend to correlate with right wing politics and many psychologists think Authoritarianism is a predominantly right wing phenomenon. The majority of Religious fundamentalists are Authoritarian followers and almost every statement true of Authoritarian followers is true of Religious Fundamentalists, which supports the claim that Organised Religions are intrinsically fascist no matter how valid the insight of the founder.
Faulty Reasoning and the 5 factor personality model.
Robert Altemeyer found that right-wing authoritarians tend to exhibit cognitive errors (They miss or misunderstand things, or see what is not there) and symptoms of faulty reasoning. Specifically, they are more likely to draw incorrect conclusions from evidence, hold contradictory ideas that result from compartmentalised thinking, uncritically accept insufficient evidence that supports their beliefs and are less likely to acknowledge their own limitations.
There is no connection between authoritarianism and intelligence showing that intelligence and stupidity are not related. Measured against the five factor model of personality, authoritarians generally score lower on openness to experience and slightly higher on conscientiousness.
When presented with parallel versions of the gospels that pointed out the inconsistencies in the various accounts a sizeable percentage of those scoring highly on Authoritarianism denied the inconsistencies staring them in the face existed, a cognitive error, while others admitted the inconsistencies but ignored them. When taking a test of reasoning and presented with the faulty argument
All fish live in the sea. Sharks live in the sea.. Therefore, sharks are fish.
Authoritarians were more likely to say the argument was correct. Just to make matters clear, substitute Whales, Squid or Plankton for Fish: not everything that lives in the sea is a fish.
It appeared that Authoritarians felt that if they agreed with the conclusion the reasoning must be correct. And they made these errors on a test of reasoning!! Well no one is perfect, and Authoritarians were only slightly more likely to make such errors, but it would seem that for Authoritarians the conclusion justifies the reasoning. More concretely many religious authoritarians assumed the discovery by archaeologists of a fallen wall in the ruins of Jericho would prove the truth of the Bible and extend from that to the whole of the Bible. The wall, Altemeyer points out, is from a different era.
They are also more likely to have double standards. In one survey Altemeyer asked whether the participant agreed with the following statements, presented in the same survey
“When it comes to love, men and women with opposite points of view are attracted to each other.”
and
“Birds of a feather flock together when it comes to love.”
High Authoritarianism scorers tended to agree with both statements as well as the pairs
“A government should allow total freedom of expression, even it if threatens law and order”
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