Got an authoritarian streak? Study says odds are, you're for Trump.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

Did you grow up with a parent who spanked you, or with one who gave you a time-out? With one who encouraged you to be considerate, curious, self-reliant and independent, or one who demanded that you be obedient, well-behaved, well-mannered and respectful toward your elders.

How do you feel toward kids?

If your answers were in the ‘spanking/obedient/well-behaved’ column, your parent, or you, might have an authoritarian world-view, at least in part, according to a surprisingly reliable polling technique used since 1992. And that characteristic, as measured by social scientists in the American National Election Study, correlates more strongly than any other variable with whether that person supports Donald Trump, according to new research by career political consultant and PhD candidate Matthew MacWilliams.

“If you’re a non-authoritarian, there’s about a 20 percent chance you’d support Trump,” says MacWilliams, who's focusing his research at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, on the impact of authoritarianism and threat in US politics. “And if you skew authoritarian, in your answers to the child-rearing questions, there’s a 50 percent chance you support Trump. Statistically, that difference is huge.”

The child-rearing questions are deceptively simple — just those four pairs of words in the first paragraph of this story. Is it more important for a child to have independence, or respect for elders? Obedience or self reliance? Curiosity, or good manners? Being considerate, or well behaved?

These questions have been asked by pollsters for decades. And over the years, social scientists, including Jean Piaget and John Dewey, have found that people who skew authoritarian on this test, pretty reliably also skew authoritarian in other ways. MacWilliams has been finding correlations as he’s crunched the numbers from different polls over time.


https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-02-25/got-authoritarian-streak-study-says-odds-are-youre-trump

The research is from 2016 but I suspect there isn't much change since the research measured attitudes.

[dem4decades]

1. Couldn't we just ask, Are you an asshole ? Odds are you're

For Trump

[ginnyinWI]

2. another trait is flag-waving.

My uncle was dominated life long by my grandfather. When my grandfather finally passed away, my uncle took up the idea of patriotism. Flag waving patriotism became his authority figure. He'd write letters to the local paper about it and talk about how he loved the flag, etc etc. He passed away before Trump came on the scene, but he'd have been a red hat wearer for sure.

Whenever someone talks about authoritarians, he's who I think of. It's dysfunctional and unfortunate that people can't or won't grow past this mindset.

Higher education is what definitely helps. You learn to think for yourself rather than just thinking, "well my mom and dad did it this way."

[no_hypocrisy]

3. You kidding? Trump is the son my father never had.

Last edited Sun Jan 13, 2019, 11:32 AM - Edit history (1)

I fight flashbacks of growing up every time I read/hear Trump's words, I see him on cable/network news, I click articles on DU. My father could have taught Trump how it's done.

I'm still recovering from an authoritarian raising me. The persecution ended when he died.

- - - -

Another similarity: Our father was a dictator, a tsar. Unreasonable demands. I would protest, and tried logic to no avail. My sister and brother would beg me to shut up, to give in to what he wanted. Otherwise, he'd take it out of all of us, meaning them. And he hated me for resisting, for not capitulating. It was Hell, but I'd do it again.

[SallyHemmings]

5. I think that is why I despise Trump

My Father lies about stupid stuff. To the public he was Mr. Wonderful. Behind closed doors, we knew better.

The last time he smacked my Mom, she pulled a butcher knife. She promised to kill him if he hit her again. That was 52 years ago.

She now sits in a nursing home with dementia. He goes over, feeds her lunch once a week, and holds her hands. The staff thinks he is wonderful. Somewhere my mother knows better.

I always questioned Dad’s bullshit. Being the only girl of three kids, he never put his hands on me but fight we did.

After shuttling him through the last six months of medical stuff, he said some pretty nasty things to me. He is 83 he is a lonely mean man. He throughout life showed how weakness where Mom showed strength.
If he wasn’t my father, I would have walked away 40 years ago.

I am done.My brothers will step up or not. But at this point neither adds much to the planet.

[bullwinkle428]

4. No surprise. The same people were Bush-Cheney voters in 2000 and 2004.

[marybourg]

6. I have a bit of an authoritarian streak,

but I detest and despise tRump and all things publican.

[highplainsdem]

7. This is a large part of why evangelicals back Trump.