Gender and Right-Wing Authoritarianism in a working-class case-study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.15678/ZP.2019.48.2.02Keywords:
labor, gender, right wing authoritarianism, labor studiesAbstract
Objective: In this article we attempt to shed light on the changing attitudes American workers may have, specifically authoritarian personality characteristics, by reviewing the results obtained from our survey of 74 retired auto workers.
Research Design & Methods: Part of our survey utilizes the Zakrisson short version of the Right-Wing Authoritarian scale and our interests are to provide any differences found between men and women. Also, we seek to test for the presence of authoritarianism as one aspect to understand the appeal of right-wing politics among the white working class.
Findings: Our findings indicate that men and women are each no more or less likely to develop authoritarian personality characteristics. The differences by gender that we found in our case-study mirror the literature over the last several decades since empirical research began in 1950 – ambivalence.
Implications/Recommendations: As a discontented citizenry searches for answers, by leaning more politically right or left will gender differences widen or converge due to the issues.
Contribution/Value Added: Given the current social and economic climate in the United States we find this research study to be both timely and important. A conservative or liberal orientation by American workers may have important contributions for the direction the US takes not only on pressing economic and social issues at home but abroad as well.
Downloads
References
Altemeyer, B. (1981). Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Winnipeg, Canada: University of Manitoba Press.
Altemeyer, B. (1996). The Authoritarian Spector. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Altemeyer, B. (1998). The other “authoritarian personality.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 30: 47–91.
Adorno, T.W., Frenkel-Brunswik, E., Levinson, D.J. & Sanford, R.N. (1950). The Authoritarian Personality. Oxford, England: Harpers.
Bayoumi, M. (2015). This Muslim American Life: Dispatches from the War on Terror. New York: New York University Press.
Brandt, M. J. & Henry, P. J. (2012). Gender inequality and gender differences in authoritarianism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38(10): 1301–1315.
Brandt, M. J., Henry, P. J. & Wetherell, G. (2012). The relationships between authoritarianism and life satisfaction changes depending on stigmatized status. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 6(2): 219–228.
Brandt, M., Crawford, J., Chambers, J., Wetherell, G. (2015). Bounded openness: The effect of openness to experience on intolerance is moderated by target group conventionality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 109(3): 549–568.
Bremmer, I. (2006). The J-Curve: A New Way to Understand Why Nations Rise and Fall. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
Campo-Flores, A. (2016). Election 2016: Immigration set to stay center stage in GOP race. Wall Street Journal, 20 February, p. A5.
Carney, D. R., Jost, J. T., Gosling, S. D. & Potter, J. (2008). The secret lives of liberals and conservatives: Personality profiles, interaction styles, and the things they leave behind. Political Psychology, 29(6): 807–840.
Case, C., Greeley, A., Fuchs, S. (1989). Social determinants of racial prejudice. Sociological Perspectives, 32(4): 469–483.
Choma, B.L. & Hanoch, Y. (2017). Cognitive ability and authoritarianism: Understanding support for Trump and Clinton. Personality and Individual Differences, 106: 297–291.
Coghlan, T. (2016). US teams up with Russia to fight militants in Syria: Syria [edition 2]. The Times, 2 July, p. 4.
Crawford, J.T. (2012). The ideological objectionable premise model: Predicting biased political judgments on the left and right. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48: 138–151.
Crowson, H. M., Thoma, S. J. & Hestevold, N. (2005). Is political conservatism synonymous with authoritarianism? Journal of Social Psychology, 145: 571–592.
Crowson, H. M. (2009). Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation as mediators of worldview beliefs on attitudes related to the war on terror. Social Psychology, 40(2): 93–103.
Cundiff, N. L. & Komarraju, M. (2008). Gender differences in ethnocultural empathy and attitudes toward men and women in authority. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 15(1): 5–15.
De Regt, S., Smits, T. & Mortelmans, D. (2012). The relevance of class in shaping authoritarian attitudes: A cross-national perspective. Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 30: 280–295.
Dekker, P. & Ester, P. (1987). Working-class authoritarianism: A re-examination of the Lipset- thesis, European Journal of Political Research, 15: 395–415.
Dhont, K. & Van Hiel, A. (2009). We must not be enemies: Interracial contact and the reduction of prejudice among authoritarians. Personality and Individual Differences, 46: 172–177.
Diemer, M. A., Mistry, R. S., Wadsworth, M. E., Lopez, I. & Reimers, F. (2012). Best practices in conceptualizing and measuring social class in psychological research. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 13(1): 77–113.
Dray, P. (2011). There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America. New York, NY: Anchor/ Random House.
Duckitt, J. (2001). A dual-process cognitive-motivational theory of ideology and prejudice. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 33: 41–113.
Duckitt, J. & Sibley, C.G. (2010). Personality, ideology, prejudice, and politics: A dual-process motivational model. Journal of Personality, 78(6):1861–1893.
Duncan, L. E., Peterson, B. E. & Winter, D. G. (1997). Authoritarianism and gender roles: Toward a psychological analysis of hegemonic relationships. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23(1): 41–49.
Duncan, L. E. (2006). What feminist and political psychologists can learn from each other: The case of authoritarianism. Feminism and Psychology, 16(1): 58–64.
Eagly, A. H., Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. & van Engen, M. L. (2003). Transformational, transactional, and laissez-faire leadership styles: A meta-analysis of comparing women and men, Psychological Bulletin, 129: 569–591.
Eagly, A. H. & Karau, S. J. (1991). Gender and the emergence of leaders: A meta-analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60(5): 685–710.
Eagly, A. H., Diekman, A. B., Johannesen-Schmidt, M. C. & Koening, A. M. (2004). Gender gaps in sociopolitical attitudes: A social psychological analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(6): 796–816.
Feather, N. T. (1993). Authoritarianism and attitudes toward high achievers. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65(1): 152–164.
Fleming, S. & Murphy, M. (2015). US income inequality rises up political agenda. The Financial Times, 25 July, 4.
Funke, F. (2005). The dimensionality of Right-Wing Authoritarianism: Lessons from the dilemma between theory and measurement. Political Psychology, 26: 195–218.
Glick, P., Fiske, S. T., Mladinic, A., Saiz, J. L., Abrams, D., Masser, B., et al. (2000). Beyond prejudice as simple snippety: Hostile and benevolent sexism across cultures. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79: 763–775.
Goldstein, M., Abrams, R. & Protess, B. (2016). Private equity hits close to home: Mortgage companies repeat mistakes the banks made. New York Times, 27 June, p. 1.
Goodin, R., Dryzek, J. (1980). Rational participation: The politics of relative power. British Journal of Political Science, 10(3): 273–292.
Heaven, P. C. & Bucci, S. (2001). Right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation and personality: An analysis using the IPIP measure. European Journal of Personality, 15: 49–56.
Henry, P. J. (2011). The role of stigma in understanding ethnicity differences in authoritarianism. Political Psychology, 32(3): 419–438.
Hodson, G., MacInnis, C. C. & Busseri, M.A. (2017). Bowing and kicking: Rediscovering the fundamental link between generalized authoritarianism and generalized prejudice. Personality and Individual Differences, 104: 243–251.
Hodson, G., Hogg, S. M. & MacInnis, C. C. (2009). The role of “dark personalities” (narcissism, Machiavellianism, psychopathy), Big Five personality factors, and ideology in explaining prejudice. Journal of Research in Personality, 43: 686–690.
Hyde, J. S. (2005). The gender similarities hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6): 581–592.
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W. & Sulloway, F. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129: 339–375.
Kaufman, D. (2016). Out & in office A right-wing, gay Israeli’s lesson for America. New York Post, 12 January, p. 25.
Kelman, H. C. & Barclay, J. (1963). The f-scale as a measure of breath of prespective. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 67(6): 608–615.
Kendi, I. X. (2016). Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America. New York, NY: Nation Books/Perseus.
Kemmelmeier, M. (2010). Gender moderates the impact of need for structure on social beliefs: Implications for ethnocentrism and authoritarianism. International Journal of Psychology, 45(3): 202–211.
Kohn, M.L. (2006). Change and Stability: A Crossnational Analysis of Social Structure and Personality. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press.
Kohn, M. L. (1977). Class and Conformity: A Study in Values (Second Edition). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Kraus, M. & Stephens, N. (2012). A road map of an emerging psychology of social class. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 6(9): 642–656.
Kurtz, S. (2002). Workplace Justice: Organizing Multi-Identity Movements. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Lee, C. I., Pratto, F. & Johnson, B. T. (2011). Intergroup consensus/disagreement in support of group-based hierarchy: An examination of socio-structural and psycho-cultural factors. Psychological Bulletin, 137(6): 1029–1064.
Lippa, R. (1995). Gender-related individual differences and psychological adjustment in terms of the big five and circumplex models. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(6): 1184–1202.
Lippa, R. & Arad, S. (1999). Gender, personality, and prejudice: The display of authoritarianism and social dominance in interviews with college men and women. Journal of Research and Personality 33: 463–493.
Lipset, S. M. (1959). Democracy and working-class authoritarianism. American Sociological Review, 24(4): 482–501.
Londono, E. (2016). America’s global campaign for gay rights: Editorial. New York Times, 26 May, p. A22.
Lott, B. (2002). Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor. American Psychologist, 57: 100–110.
Lott, B. (2012). The social psychology of class and classism. American Psychologist, 67: 650–658.
MacWilliams, M. C. (2016). Who decides when the party doesn’t? Authoritarian voters and the rise of Donald Trump. Political Science & Politics, 49(4): 716–721.
Mashal, M. & Shah, T. (2016). Taliban’s new leader, more scholar than fighter, remains a mystery. The New York Times, 12 July, p. A4.
McFarland, S. (1998). Toward a typology of prejudiced persons. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology, Montreal, Canada.
McGregor, J. (2016). Corporate America’s embrace of gay rights reaches stunning tipping point. The Washington Post, 5 April.
Middendorp, C. & Melon, J. (1990). The authoritarianism of the working class revisited. European Journal of Political Research, 18: 257–267.
Myers, J., Mai-Duc, C. & Welsh, B. (2016). Election 2016; Are you an independent voter? If you checked this box, then you aren’t. Los Angeles Times, 17 April.
Nagoshi, J. L., Terrell, H. K. & Nagoshi, C. T. (2007). Changes in authoritarianism and coping in college students immediately after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Personality and Individual Differences, 43: 1722–1732.
Napier, J. J. & Jost, J. J. (2008). The antidemocratic personality revisited: A cross-national investigation of working class authoritarianism. Journal of Social Issues, 64(3): pp. 595–617.
Oakes, J.M. & Rossi, R.H. (2003). The measurement of SES in health research: Current practice and steps toward a new approach. Social Science and Medicine, 56: 769–784.
Olson, J.S. & Beal, H. O. (2010). The Ethnic Dimension in American History, Fourth Edition. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
Paletta, D. (2016). Election 2016 (A special report) - terror attacks in U.S., Paris alter election narrative. Wall Street Journal, 27 January, p. S3.
Pearson, C. (2016). Reform or Repression: Organizing America’s Anti-Union Movement. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Perry, R., Sibley, C. G. & Duckitt, J., (2013). Dangerous and competitive worldviews: A meta-analysis of their associations with Social Dominance Orientation and Right-Wing Authoritarianism. Journal of Research in Personality, 47(1): 116–127.
Peterson, B. & Lane, M. D. (2001). Implications of authoritarianism for young adulthood: Longitudinal Analysis of college experiences and future goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(6): 678–690.
Peterson B. E. & Zurbriggen, E. L. (2010). Gender, sexuality and the authoritarian personality. Journal of Personality, 78(6): 1801–1826.
Romans, C. (2016). Meet the angry American voter. CNN Wire Service, 29 March.
Santos, F. & Medina, J. (2016). Undocumented immigrants live in fear after court ruling. New York Times, 27 June, p. A9.
Sibley, C. G., Wilson, M. S. & Duckitt, J. (2007). Antecedents of men’s hostile and benevolent sexism: The dual roles of social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(2): 160–172.
Sidanius, J., Levin, S., Lui, J. H. & Pratto, F. (2000). Social dominance orientation, anti-egalitarianism and the political psychology of gender: An extension and cross-cultural replication. European Journal of Social Psychology, 30: 41–67.
Smith, S. (2006). Subterranean Fire: A History of Working-class Radicalism in the United States. Chicago, IL: Haymarket Books.
Solt, F. (2008). Economic inequality and democratic political engagement. American Journal of Political Science, 52(1): 48–60.
Unger, R. K. (2002). Them and us: Hidden ideologiesdifferences in degree or kind? Analysis of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2: 43–52.
Walker, T. J. E. (2002). Illusive Identity: The Blurring of Working Class Consciousness in Modern Western Culture. Lanham, MD: Lexington Press.
Zakrisson, I. (2005). Construction of a short version of the right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) scale. Personality and Individual Differences 39: 863–872.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Open Access, licence: CC-BY 4.0
