Must We Play Nice With Authoritarians?

Revisiting the authoritarian personality post-election.

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The authoritarian personality was a concept introduced by Theodor W. Adorno and his colleagues in their 1950 book The Authoritarian Personality. Their work emerged from research into the psychological underpinnings of prejudice and fascism. The question they were trying to answer was, “Why did so many millions of Germans follow — and love — Hitler?”

Their conclusions? According to Adorno and his colleagues at U.C. Berkeley, individuals with authoritarian tendencies tend to share specific qualities, particularly in their attitudes and behaviors. Here are the main qualities they identified:

Conventionalism

A strong adherence to conventional values and social norms, a belief in traditional ways of life as inherently correct, and suspicion of deviation from these norms.

Authoritarian Submission

A submissive and uncritical attitude toward authority figures.

Authoritarian Aggression

A tendency to be hostile toward individuals or groups seen as deviating from conventional norms or threatening the social order, often expressed as…