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An attempt to (a) locate the extent of the authoritarian predisposition in 2 nationwide samples, and (b) link such predispositions with certain types of political attitudes and behavior. The hypothesis was that high authoritarians would tend to participate less, and have less political self-confidence in politics than low authoritarians. The F-scale, modified by F. Sanford and the authors had been administered to 2 crosssectional, area probability samples, in addition to questions on opinions on foreign policy (N=1,470). The social profile of the authoritarian appears to be as follows: (1) younger people tended to be low, older people, high authoritarians, (2) those with limited education tend to be high, those with fuller education low authoritarian. (3) High authoritarianism occurs more frequently in Lc. (4) In the Mc the lower income group was more vulnerable, the higher income group was less vulnerable to authoritarianism. The same was true of Lc. (5) The highest concentration of authoritarians was found in the LLc and the poorly educated LMc. Analyzing the authoritarian's response to politics on the basis of the social profile it was found that (1) a signif. link exists between authoritarianism and isolationism though the isolationist is by no means always the 'reactionary.' (2) Authoritarianism is directly related to feelings of political ineffectiveness. (3) High authoritarians did not vote as frequently as the rest of the pop. (4) Authoritarianism was helpful in explaining candidate preference. L. P. Chall.

Recent socio-psychol'al res has demonstrated a connection between authoritarian personality trends & a tendency towards ingroup-outgroup dichotomizing. A PO survey conducted in Los Angeles County provided the data by which authoritarianism could be related to internationalism, the latter being measured in terms of att's regarding Soviet-American trade in non-strategic goods, & teaching about Soviet life in US Sch's. A personality scale adapted from that described in 1950 by Sanford & Older was applied to 460 persons interviewed about the beginning of 1954. Definite & signif r's were found between personality & attitude toward the 2 questions mentioned. Authoritarians approve of trade with Russia less often than equalitarians (49% as compared to 61%). When they do approve of trade, authoritarians, less frequently than equalitarians, point to the international benefits which might result. More than equalitarians, they think in terms of econ & parochial rather than general & cosmopolitan benefits. Authoritarians also approve of teaching about Russia less often than do equalitarians (70% favorable, as against 85% of equalitarians). When they do approve, they less often refer to the utility of such teaching for reducing intergroup tensions, or to the importance of safeguarding liberal principles. When opposed to such teaching, they more often give as their reason the necessity for combatting Communism. These findings have implications regarding the manner in which propaganda might best be conducted in order to ease tensions. IPSA.

One product of American concern with the concept of authoritarianism (A) was the fascism (F) scale, an 'authoritarian' attitude questionnaire whose items were said to be validated by a series of psychol'al interviews. Although the Berkeley group claimed to have isolated an authoritarian personality type, whose origin could be explained in psycho-analytic terms, later res with the F scale has taken a more modest position. The concept of an authoritarian att is potentially useful to the pol'al sci'st trying to explain pol'al behavior, & some of these uses are examined here. However, while A, as measured on the F scale, is a good single-factor explanation of certain kinds of political-level information, it is not a better single-factor explanation than another psychol'al variable, pol'al confidence. Res also indicates that among certain 'underprivileged' groups, A does not r with observed variations in pol'al behavior or att. Further work with A as a pol'al behavior variable should be preceded by attempts to construct items that are free of this class bias. (Modified AIPSA). Adapted from the source document.