Authoritarian and aggressive attitudes in American students

In a sample of 118 college students, scores on a measure of authoritarian attitudes were associated with scores on subscales from the Buss and Perry (1992) Aggression Questionnaire.     

Authoritarian attitudes and authoritarian personality among recidivist prisoners

On first glance, criminals would seem to be a very authority-defiant group—almost by definition. Yet Adorno and colleagues showed them to be very pro-authority. An F-scale version balanced against acquiescence, an Attitude to Authority (AA) scale and an Authoritarianism Behaviour Inventory (ABI) were given to a group of 70 Australian recidivist prisoners in Parramatta Gaol. Compared with general population means, they were found not to be especially high scorers on the F scale but to be very anti-authority in attitudes as measured by the Ray AA scale. They also showed lower scores on the ABI—indicating a non-dominant personality. This latter finding, however, appeared simply a reflection of the generally low occupational status of prisoners. When education was controlled for, prisoners were found to be even more anti-authority than at first appeared (as indexed by AA scale scores).     

Authoritarian attitudes and the expression of aggression in Kuwaiti and U.S. students

In samples of undergraduates in Kuwait (ns=70 men, 70 women) and the U.S. (ns=37 men, 81 women), scores on the F Scale were positively correlated with scores on the Buss and Perry Aggression Questionnaire.     

Laterality and field dependence

The purposes of this study were (1) to replicate a right visual-field advantage for a version of the Embedded Figures Test modified for tachistoscopic presentation and (2) to test for a relationship between field independence and performance on modified Embedded Figures Test items presented to the right visual-field. 34 right-handed subjects were presented Embedded Figures Test items to the left, center, and right visual-fields for 150 msec. The Group Embedded Figures Test was also given. Results showed a right visual-field advantage on the modified embedded-figures test and (2) a negative relationship between Group Embedded Figures Test performance and right visual-field scores. These findings were discussed in terms of the differences between the two versions of the embedded-figures test, memory for simple figures, specificity of judgment, and sustained versus tachistoscopic perception. A tentative conclusion suggests that a better internal representation of the briefly presented complex figures places field-independent subjects at a disadvantage on the modified version of the test.     

Dichhaptic laterality and field dependence

Relationships among laterality, field dependence, and sex were investigated using right handed subjects. Dichhaptic measures of laterality showed a significant left-hand advantage for the discrimination of irregular shapes. No significant relationships were found between laterality and sex or sex role perceptions nor between laterality and field dependence. A modality of response effect on the laterality task was interpreted in terms of the functional cerebral space principle.     

Authoritarian Disbeliefs in Diversity

Ethnic diversity poses a threat to authoritarians, as it indicates non-conformism to group norms and poses a threat to group conformity. According to authoritarian dynamic theory, threats elicit authoritarian reactions in people with authoritarian predispositions. In the present article we tested a mediation model derived from authoritarian dynamic theory in a sample of 171 students. As expected, authoritarian predisposition negatively predicted diversity beliefs. This effect was fully mediated by an authoritarian manifestation, that is, authoritarian aggression. The two other components of right-wing authoritarianism, authoritarian submission and conventionalism, did not mediate the effect. Results confirm contemporary research on authoritarianism and the differentiation of authoritarian predispositions and its manifestations.     

Authoritarian Predispositions and Attitudes Towards Redistribution

Authoritarian predispositions are associated with a preference for order, certainty, and security. Using data from European Social Surveys (ESS), we show that this association extends to attitudes towards redistributive policies. We demonstrate that support for redistributive policies that emphasize the government’s responsibility to provide old age, health, and unemployment benefits are positively associated with authoritarian predispositions. We also provide evidence that perceived economic threats moderate this relationship such that, for individuals who perceive higher levels of economic threat, the relationship between authoritarian predispositions and support for government responsibility is stronger. These results show that authoritarian predispositions are not only associated with social preferences but also attitudes towards economic policies.     

Visual field dependence as a navigational strategy

Visual perception is an important component of environmental navigation. Previous research has revealed large individual differences in navigational strategies (i.e., the body’s kinesthetic and embodied approach to movement) and the perception of environmental surfaces (via distance estimations), but little research has investigated the potential relationship between these sources of individual variation. An important navigational strategy is the interaction between reliance on visual cues and vestibular or proprioceptive cues. We investigated the role of this navigational strategy in the perception of environmental surfaces. The results supported three embodied evolutionary predictions: Individuals who were most reliant on visual context (1) overestimated vertical surfaces significantly more, and (2) feared falling significantly more, than did those who were least reliant on visual context; and (3) all individuals had roughly accurate horizontal distance estimates, regardless of their navigational strategy. These are among the first data to suggest that individual differences in perception are closely related to the individual differences in navigation that derive from navigational risks. Variable navigational strategies may reflect variable capacities to perceive and navigate the environment.