The tendancy toward this is measured by the RWA Scale. People who score highly on this scale are more likely to be bigoted, prejudiced, and religious fundamentalists. They are also lmore ikely to attack others in support of the authority figures in their lives.
Altemeyer describes another personality called the Social Dominator, a person who's relentless quest for personal power, coupled with ruthlessness and a lack of morality, is designed by nature to take advantage of the Right Wing Authoritarian. The tendancy toward this trait is measured by the social dominance index.
The fun really starts when someone scores highly on both these scales. Then you get someone motivated by fear and self righteousness, willing to attack others in support of the authorities, but with a relentless drive to dominate others and become that authority. A double dose of all the wrong traits. These "doubles" are particulary attractive to high RWA's because they actually share many traits. It is rumoured George W Bush and John W Howard rate as doubles on these scales.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wonders why some people seem to be immune to logical argument, or why people who belong to a religion that advocates peace and forgiveness can ruthlessly attack others in its name.
I was so impressed with the book I took the RWA scale and social dominator index and turned them into web based forms. Click on the hyperlinks to take the test:
Out of interest, I scored 55 on the RWA scale and 15% on the social dominance index.
Altemeyer describes another personality called the Social Dominator, a person who's relentless quest for personal power, coupled with ruthlessness and a lack of morality, is designed by nature to take advantage of the Right Wing Authoritarian. The tendancy toward this trait is measured by the social dominance index.
The fun really starts when someone scores highly on both these scales. Then you get someone motivated by fear and self righteousness, willing to attack others in support of the authorities, but with a relentless drive to dominate others and become that authority. A double dose of all the wrong traits. These "doubles" are particulary attractive to high RWA's because they actually share many traits. It is rumoured George W Bush and John W Howard rate as doubles on these scales.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who wonders why some people seem to be immune to logical argument, or why people who belong to a religion that advocates peace and forgiveness can ruthlessly attack others in its name.
I was so impressed with the book I took the RWA scale and social dominator index and turned them into web based forms. Click on the hyperlinks to take the test:
Out of interest, I scored 55 on the RWA scale and 15% on the social dominance index.
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