Construction of a short version of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale

Abstract

This study presents an attempt to develop a short (15 item) version of the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) scale (Altemeyer, 1998). Participants were three samples of high school and university students (17–50 years old). The scale developed had items that were shorter, with less extreme wording, and less reference to specific groups (e.g., women, homosexuals), i.e., relating to attitudes to be predicted from RWA, rather than being part of the RWA concept itself. The scale displayed reliabilities (Cronbach’s alpha) varying between 0.72 and 0.80 in the three samples. Multiple regression analyses revealed that the short RWA scale substantially contributed to the variance in ethnic tolerance, racism, and sexism (when controlling for social dominance orientation). It was discussed that this version of the RWA scale presumably taps a somewhat narrower authoritarianism concept, but still functions as predicted from theory and earlier research.