Activities

Authoritarianism can be defined as an unquestioning belief in authority (and an associated distrust and dislike of those who question or undermine authority). In psychology, it is often understood to be a personality variable that differentiates people in terms of their belief in the importance and value of authority.

The construct was first invoked to explain why particular individuals succumbed to the allure of Fascism in the 1930s (e.g., Adorno et al., 1950). However, it is widely acknowledged that such explanations are very limited, and that rather than explaining extremism, authoritarianism is something that itself needs to be explained (e.g., Billig, 1978).

In the BBC Prison Study we measured authoritarianism using a popular scale developed by Robert Altemeyer at the University of Manitoba (Altemeyer, 1996). On each scale respondents circle a single number to indicate their level of agreement with a particular statement.

• Things would go better if people talked less and worked harder
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
   
• It is better to live in a society in which the laws are vigorously enforced than to give people too much freedom
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
   
• People should always comply with the decisions of the majority
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
        
• You have to give up an idea when important people think otherwise
      do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
        
• There are two kinds of people: strong and weak
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
        
• What we need are strong leaders that the people can trust
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
   
• Our social problems would be solved if, in one way or another, we we could get rid of weak and dishonest people
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely
        
• People should always keep to the rules
       do not agree at all   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   agree completely

To calculate a mean authoritarianism score, responses on the above 8 scales are first added up and  that sum is then divided by 8.

The mean score of participants we selected for the study was 2.81. The mean score of other applicants was 2.93. The authoritarianism scores of Prisoners and Guards on Days 1, 3 and 7 of the BBC Prison Study are presented in the resources section of this Website. These were some of the most interesting data that we collected over the course of the study.

References

• Adorno, T. W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D. J., & Sanford, R. N. (1950). The authoritarian personality. New York: Harper.
• Altmeyer, B. (1996). The authoritarian specter. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
• Billig, M. (1978). Fascists: A social psychological view of the National Front. London: Academic Press.