Validity of a Symbolic Measure of Authoritarianism

Abstract

A symbolic, non-verbal measure of authoritarianism was responded to by male and female, white and black commercial business school students, undergraduates, and graduate social work students ( N = 287). Scores on the symbolic measure showed low (.35 to .39) predictable “known groups” validity and were generally correlated as theoretically anticipated with both objectively measured and self-perceived conservatism, birth order, religious fundamentalism, subjective social-class position, and intrafamilial consistency of psychological attributes and socio-political ideologies. Given the methodological limitations of verbal authoritarianism measures, these results suggest some potential advantages of the presently reported non-verbal test of the authoritarianism dimension.