This website places at your disposal a free ebook entitled The Authoritarians.
Dr. Bob Altemeyer wrote this book in 2006 when a great deal seemed to be going wrong in America. He thought the research on authoritarian personalities could explain a lot of it. (The book is set in that era, but you will have no trouble finding present-day examples of what the experiments found back then.)
Click on the links below to download a free PDF or EPub version of the book. If you like to turn paper pages, you can purchase the book from lulu.com. If you would like to listen to The Authoritarians, Dr. Bob will read you the whole thing on 8 CDS which you can purchase from Cherry Hill Publishing.
The Authoritarians
Bob Altemeyer, 2006
The Authoritarians – (Free Download – PDF)
The Authoritarians – (Free Download – EPub)
Purchase CD Audiobook – Read by the author, with a foreward by John Dean.
Ever since John W. Dean published his Conservatives Without Conscience in 2006, much interest has been vested in the research of Dr. Bob Altemeyer that was so prominently featured in the book.
In writing Conservatives Without Conscience, Dean set out to learn why modern conservatives seemed to think and behave in ways diametrically opposite the righteous and moral values they so publicly espoused. What he discovered was an existing body of scientific research tracing back to the cinders of the Holocaust. This research focused on the Authoritarian Personality, which social scientists believe was the enabling element within German society that was so deftly exploited by Adolph Hitler and the Third Reich.
Bob Altemeyer studied the authoritarian personality for over 40 years while a professor of psychology at University of Manitoba. His experiments drew high praise from other scientists, and won the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Prize for Behavioral Science Research. This book summarizes his many findings, and has been widely acclaimed for the relaxed, conversational way the author presents far-reaching and penetrating insights into American life today.
Authoritarian Nightmare – Trump and His Followers (hardcover & ebook)
Bob Altemeyer and John W. Dean
Melville Press, 2022, 368 pages
How did America end up with a leader who acts so crudely and despotically, and counter to our democratic principles? Why do his followers stick with him, even when he acts against their own interests?
To fully understand, John Dean, a man with a history of standing up to autocratic presidents, joined with Bob Altemeyer, a professor of psychology with a unique area of expertise: Authoritarianism.
Relying on social science findings and psychological diagnostic tools (such as the “Power Mad Scale” and the “Con Man Scale”), as well as research and analysis from the Monmouth University Polling Institute (one of America’s most respected public opinion research foundations), the authors provide us with an eye-opening understanding of the Trump phenomenon — and how we may be able to stop it.
Updating Authoritarian Nightmare (Free Download – PDF)
Essay by Bob Altemeyer, 2020
Lessons of the 2020 American Election, January 6th, and Beyond (Free Download – PDF)
Essay by Bob Altemeyer, 2021
Sex and Youth: A Twenty-Four Year Investigation
Bob Altemeyer
Originally published by University of Manitoba Press, 2009. Available from Lulu.com.
This book reports 24 years of research on the sex lives of students at a Canadian university. The studies used a procedure called the “Secret Survey,” which produced comprehensive and detailed reports by the students on their sexual behavior.
Topics covered include sexual attractiveness, oral-genital sex, intercourse, descriptions of ideal sex, “hooking-up,” “friends with benefits,” “freak-dancing,” and love. The author concludes that many things about sex have changed over time, and many other things have not.
Atheists – A Groundbreaking Study of America’s Nonbelievers
Bruce Hunsberger and Bob Altemeyer
Prometheus Books, 2006
According to polls, most Americans believe in God. But disbelief is spreading. After reviewing the mounting evidence that organized religion is declining in many countries, this accessible book provides the first scientific study of active atheists. The authors surveyed nearly 300 members of atheist organizations in the United States. Besides soliciting these nonbelievers’ level of education, political leanings, etc., the researchers sought to understand how each respondent had become an atheist. Had they ever believed in God, or had they never? Had they paid a price for their atheism? Three chapters describe the levels of dogmatism, zealotry, and religious prejudice found among the active atheists. These results, compared with others obtained from more ordinary samples of atheists (and strong fundamentalists), often surprised the authors. Uniquely, the book features a chapter in which the atheists give their reaction to the study and its often-surprising findings. Another chapter breaks down the answers a large Canadian sample gave to the measures used in the American study, according to how religious the respondent was-from atheist to agnostic to four different levels of theistic intensity. A clear finding emerged: the more religious a group was, the more their personalities, prejudices, and beliefs separated them from everyone else.
Amazing Conversions – Why Some Turn to Faith & Others Abandon Religion (hardcover & ebook)
Bob Altemeyer and Bruce E. Hunsberger
Prometheus Books, 1997
This groundbreaking study uncovers fascinating new data on sudden shifts in religious and nonreligious belief. Amazing Conversions explores, for the first time ever, the reasons why converts join, and apostates go. The focus of this absorbing study is on some amazing people, with unique stories to tell those who join a religious group in spite of being raised in nonreligious (or even antireligious) families, and those who, at great personal cost, choose to leave religion in spite of having a deeply religious background. Why would an atheist’s son become a Christian fundamentalist? Why would a “good Catholic girl” decide that she really is an atheist? The authors of Amazing Conversions, both social psychologists, surveyed thousands of young adults to find that small number who were “amazing believers” or “amazing apostates.” These rare individuals tell their stories, which are supplemented by their responses to a detailed questionnaire. The resulting picture shows that amazing believers and amazing apostates are dramatically different groups of people, in spite of the fact that their lives now stand in opposition to previous (non)religious training. You, too, can complete the same questionnaire to learn more about yourself and your beliefs. Have you experienced an amazing conversion?
The Authoritarian Specter
Bob Altemeyer
Harvard University Press, 1996
The bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, the emergence of militias and skinheads, the rise of the religious right, the attacks on Planned Parenthood clinics, the backlash against equal rights movements, the increase in poverty…these, according to Bob Altemeyer, are all versions of one story–the authoritarian personality in action. But aren’t authoritarians Nazi types, kooks, the Klan? These are just the extreme examples, he argues. The Authoritarian Specter shows that many ordinary people today are psychologically disposed to embrace antidemocratic, fascist policies.
The book presents the latest results from a prize-winning research program on the authoritarian personality–a victory for the scientific method in the struggle to understand the worst aspects of ourselves. It connects for the first time the many ways authoritarianism undermines democracy. Many of our biggest problems, seemingly unrelated, have authoritarian roots. The scientific studies demonstrating this are extensive and thorough; their powerful findings are presented in a conversational, clear manner that engages readers from all backgrounds.
This is an important, timely work. It explains a growing movement to submit to a “man on horseback,” to attack those who are different, to march in lockstep. Altemeyer reveals that these sentiments are strongly held even by many American lawmakers. These discoveries deserve careful attention in a presidential election year.
Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right-Wing Authoritarianism
Bob Altemeyer
Jossey-Bass, 1988 – not in print
This book provides important insights into the authoritarian personality, revealing why right-wing authoritarian tendencies develop in some individuals and not in others. It also shows how a person’s predisposition toward right-wing authoritarianism can be measured, and more.
The book will interest social psychologists and personality researchers, since it is shown that parents, religion, and early education affect the development of authoritarian attitudes in young adults. Political scientists who study rightwing movements, the interplay of personality and political party affiliation, and the way liberal and conservative forces in society are represented in legislatures may also find the book useful.
The author defines right wing authoritarianism as the combination of three attitudinal clusters in a person: submission, aggression, and conventionalism. He also considers how authoritarianism develops in a person, authoritarian aggression, and the connection between religion and rightwing authoritarianism. Evidence suggesting that authoritarianism is increasingly associated with political party preference as interest in politics rises is reviewed. Ways right wing authoritarianism can be controlled in a democratic society are discussed. Supplemental information on the author’s research is contained in six appendixes. 112 references, figures.
Right-Wing Authoritarianism (PDF)
Bob Altemeyer
University of Manitoba Press, 1981, 352 pages
Altemeyer begins by closely examining the scientific literature on right-wing authoritarianism. This timely volume surveys the history of social psychological research on right-wing authoritarianism and describes a more fruitful direction for future work. It concludes with a disturbing comment on the pervasiveness of authoritarian behaviour in our society.
Chapters in Books and Handbooks
“Authoritarianism.” Article in the Encyclopedia of Human Behavior (1994). Academic Press.
“Reducing Prejudice in Right-Wing Authoritarians.” Chapter in The Psychology of Prejudice (1994). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
“The Other ‘Authoritarian Personality.’” Chapter in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology (1998). Academic Press.
“Fundamentalism and Authoritarianism.” Chapter in The Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality. R. Palutzian & C. Park (Editors). Guilford, 2005. (with Bruce Hunsberger)
Journal Articles
Long-Term Memory Improvement: Confirmation of a Finding by Piaget. Child Development, 1969
Subject pool pollution and the post-experimental interview. Journal of Experimental Research in Personality, 1971
Sexual identity, physical attractiveness and seating position as determinants of influence in discussion groups. Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science, 1974 (with K. Jones)
Marching In Step. Sciences 1988
Focuses on the study conducted by a team of social scientists from University of California at Berkeley on the psychological roots of authoritarian personality. Model for investigating authoritarian personality. Awareness of person in his authoritarian tendencies; Results of the attitude survey conducted by the team.
Impressions of American and Soviet Behaviour- Right Wing Authoritarian Images in a Mirror. South African Journal of Psychology, 1991 (With Andre Kamenshikov)
U. Bronfenbrenner (1961) described how Russians and Americans appeared to view the world in a diametrically opposed fashion. Americans saw Russians as aggressors on the international scene who could not be trusted and who exploited and deluded their people; Russians seemed to mirror this in their image of Americans. The current research, conducted in the early years of glasnost, investigated these perceptions in American and Russian students. Findings reveal little evidence of nationalist bias; however, right-wing authoritarians on both sides were markedly biased.
Authoritarianism, Religious Fundamentalism, Quest and Prejudice. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 1992 (With Bruce Hunsberger)
Five studies of university students and their parents were carried out to investigate the relationships among right-wing authoritarianism, various indices of religious orientation, and prejudice. Measures of religious fundamentalism, and religious quest, developed for this research, proved to be psychometrically sound, and were good discriminators between prejudiced and unprejudiced persons, across a variety of different measures of prejudice and authoritarian aggression. Scores on both Religious Fundamentalism and Religious Quest scales also were correlated strongly with right-wing authoritarianism and the Christian Orthodoxy scale, although orthodoxy itself tended not to be correlated with prejudice. Apparently, religious fundamentalism and nonquesting are linked with authoritarianism and prejudice toward a wide variety of minority groups. Possible explanations for these relationships are discussed.
Altemeyer, B., & Hunsberger, B. (1993). “Religion and prejudice: Lessons not learned from the past”: Reply to Gorsuch. International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 3(1), 33-37.
The Other “Authoritarian Personality.” Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 1998
To Thine Own Self Be Untrue: Self-awareness in Authoritarians. North American Journal of Psychology, 1999
Changes in Attitudes Toward US Presidents Nixon and Clinton and the Authoritarian Personality. Journal of Social Psychology, 1999
Changes in Attitudes Toward Homosexuals. Journal of Homosexuality, 2001
Examines the changes in attitudes of university students and parents toward homosexuals in Canada. Causes of hostility toward homosexuals; Attributions of the causes of the shift; Experiences affecting attitudes toward homosexuals.
Dogmatic Behavior Among Students: Testing a New Measure of Dogmatism. Journal of Social Psychology, 2002
The study tested the validity of a new measure of dogmatism by examining university students’ evaluations of the Bible. Those who believed that every word in the Bible came directly from God and that the Bible is free of any error, contradiction, or inconsistency scored much higher on this dogmatism measure than students who thought otherwise. Such “true believers” then read the four highly varying Gospel accounts of the resurrection of Jesus. The most dogmatic of them still insisted there were no contradictions or inconsistencies in the Bible. The less dogmatic acknowledged that contradictions and inconsistencies exist. These results reinforce those of four earlier studies that indicated that the new measure of dogmatism has empirical validity.
What Happens When Authoritarians Inherit the Earth? A Simulation. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 2003
Two runs of a futuristic simulation involving introductory psychology students were held on successive nights. On one night, “Earth” was populated entirely by right-wing authoritarian followers; on the second night, a small number of dominating authoritarians were included among a second group of authoritarian followers. With a few notable exceptions (e.g., nuclear war did not break out), the future evolved as anticipated on the two evenings. In general, authoritarians produced dismal futures, beset by unemployment, famine, and disease.
Why Do Religious Fundamentalists Tend to be Prejudiced? The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2003
Studies are reported of university students, and of their parents, that found that religious fundamentalism correlated quite highly with religious ethnocentrism, as well as with- to lesser degrees- hostility toward homosexuals and prejudice against various racial-ethnic minorities. Also, fundamentalist students reported receiving strong training in identifying with the family religion from an early age. But, by comparison, they reported virtually no stress being placed on their racial identification. It is suggested that strong, early emphasis of the family religion may reinforce Tajfel’s minimal group effect and produce a template for “us-them” discriminations that facilitates acquiring later prejudices.
The Decline of Organized Religion in Western Civilization The Decline of Organized Religion in Western Civilization. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2004
Polls of representative samples show that organized religion has declined greatly in many Western nations. The fall has been less severe in North America than in most Western European countries but proceeds nonetheless. Surveys of middle-aged Manitoba parents indicate apostasy grew more over time than any other religious category—many times more that fundamentalist religions increased, for example. Such parents endorsed many different explanations of their loss of faith but most commonly said it happened because they observed hypocrisy in members of their religion. Various examples were cited. Most of those who abandoned their religion have lived nearly all of their adult lives outside their faith and doubt they will ever return. As their children have largely been raised without religious training, the decline of organized religion seems likely to continue.
Highly Dominating, Highly Authoritarian Personalities. Journal of Social Psychology, 2004
The author considered the small part of the population whose members score highly on both the Social Dominance Orientation scale and the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale. Studies of these High SDO-High RWAs, culled from samples of nearly 4,000 Canadian university students and over 2600 of their parents and reported in the present article, reveal that these dominating authoritarians are among the most prejudiced persons in society. Furthermore, they seem to combine the worst elements of each kind of personality, being power-hungry, unsupportive of equality, manipulative, and amoral, as social dominators are in general, while also being religiously ethnocentric and dogmatic, as right-wing authoritarians tend to be. The author suggested that, although they are small in number, such persons can have considerable impact on society because they are well-positioned to become the leaders of prejudiced right-wing political movements.
A Revised Religious Fundamentalism Scale: The Short and Sweet of It. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 2004. (With Bruce Hunsberger)
Despite its relatively good psychometric properties and empirical validity, the 20-item Religious Fundamentalism scale developed by the authors has several problems. It does not measures all of the aspects of fundamentalism, as detained, as well as it might. And it could stand to be shorter. An item development program led to a 12-statement revision that is more internally consistent despite having broader coverage. As well, it is as reliable as the longer original scale, despite being 40% shorter, and at least as empirically valid.