Authoritarianism and power cues

Abstract

Abstract : The relationship between authoritarianism of the subject and his reactions to standard stimulus persons presented to him was investigated. The stimulus persons differed as to the types of power or status they appear to possess. Internal power cues were manipulated through forcefulness and decisiveness of speech. External cues were manipulated by the stimulus person's reported socio-economic status. The subjects' accuracy of perception, acceptance, and free description of the stimulus person constituted the dependent variables. The results generally support the theoretical position that high authoritarians are not necessarily more sensitive to external power cues, but are more influenced by them in making inferences about other persons. Low authoritarians are not influenced by external power-relevant cues, but use more internal factors in describing others. The data also revealed that subjects tended to distort their reports of their parents' income in a direction commensurate with that reported for the stimulus person, thus demonstrating a type of invidious comparison. In addition, it was found that subjects from the liberal arts school had lower FScale scores than those drawn from the engineering school. Since the subjects were primarily freshman, it appears that the liberal arts school is attracting more liberal students. (Author)