Study links left- and right- wing authoritarian traits

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People with extreme political views that favor authoritarianism—whether they are on the far left or the far right—have surprisingly similar behaviors and psychological characteristics, a new study finds.

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published the research by psychologists at Emory University—the first comprehensive look at left-wing authoritarianism.

"We took the long history of research into right-wing authoritarianism and used insights from that to develop a conceptional framework and measures to test for authoritarianism in the political left," says Thomas Costello, an Emory Ph.D. student of psychology and first author of the study. "We found that in terms of their psychological characteristics and their actual behaviors, left-wing authoritarians are extremely similar to authoritarians on the right."

Right-wing authoritarians tend to aggressively back the established hierarchy, while left-wing authoritarians tend to aggressively oppose it. They are almost like mirror images of one another that both share a common psychological core, the researchers conclude.

"Authoritarians have a predisposition for liking sameness and opposing differences among people in their environment," Costello says. "They are submissive to people they perceive as authority figures, they are dominant and aggressive towards people they disagree with, and they are careful to obey what they consider the norms for their respective groups."

At its core, authoritarianism is likely about power, Costello adds.

"It's a mistake to think of authoritarianism as a right-wing concept, as some researchers have in the past," he says. "We found that ideology becomes secondary. Psychologically speaking, you're an authoritarian first, and an ideologue only as it serves the power structure that you support."

How is it supposed to be surprising?

Take a wild guess

People supporting authoritarianism have common psychological traits, no matter what they put on their banners.

In political science and popular discourse, the horseshoe theory asserts that the far-left and the far-right, rather than being at opposite and opposing ends of a linear political continuum, closely resemble one another, analogous to the way that the opposite ends of a horseshoe are close together. Wikipedia

Couple of reasons: Because people on both sides routinely denounce the other as crazed authoritarians. Because authoritarian leaders from both sides end up tyrannising their own people, which their supporters contrive to ignore.

Horseshoe theory.

You are correct, but I don't think that's the purpose behind this thread

Please, don't attempt to read minds. It's unhealthy.

A funny aspect of horseshoe theory is that the people on the horseshoe ends tend to see only the most radical end of the other side and ignore the whole middle.

People supporting authoritarianism have common psychological traits, no matter what they put on their banners.

How is it supposed to be surprising?

The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology published the research by psychologists at Emory University—the first comprehensive look at left-wing authoritarianism.

Please, don't attempt to read minds. It's unhealthy.

The interesting portion was related to what was contained in the second paragraph I quoted:


While it isn't surprising that they share traits, the fact that no previous research into the subject of "left-wing authoritarianism" had taken place certainly was - And that lack of previous research suggests the possibilty (however remote) of a desire among researchers to avoid making the link.