Threat and authoritarianism in the United States, 1978-1987.
Studies at both the individual and collective levels have implicated threat as an important factor in authoritarianism. As a follow-up to Sales's (1973) study relating behavioral indicators of authoritarianism to levels of social threat, the present research analyzed archival data from the United States for high-threat (1978-1982) and low-threat (1983-1987) periods. Societal measures of most attitude and behavioral components of the authoritarian syndrome significantly decreased between the high-threat and the low-threat periods. These results support the threat-authoritarianism relationship but also suggest a more complicated theoretical model that links perceived social conditions, arousal of authoritarian sentiments, dispositional authoritarianism, and the nature of political appeals--particularly those that engage authoritarian aggression.
Doty
R M
RM
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor 48109-1346.
Peterson
B E
BE
Winter
D G
DG
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001318:Authoritarianism; D006801:Humans; D007389:Internal-External Control; D011639:Public Opinion; D011640:Public Policy; D012922:Social Change; D012931:Social Environment; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States