"There are some members of the public whose judgment I simply wouldn't trust
and they're just a couple of heartbeats away from believing they have the right
to go about acting as God's little pruning fork, ridding society of criminal scum."

- Kerre Woodham, 2006

This is the opening quote of my Psychology Masters thesis (horrifically titled "Sex differences in the relation of aggression to Social Dominance Orientation and Right Wing Authoritarianism").

The really interesting part of my thesis was the study of a particular kind of person, defined by political psychology. RWA is, in essence, the authoritarian follower, the kind of person who cheered to see Hitler bought to power.

Who are these people? They tend to have a rigid view of morality, fundamentalist religious beliefs, and be xenophobic and ethnocentric. The key attitude of the authoritarian follower is the belief that legitimate authorities should ideally have a strong religious leader who will censor those social groups who are viewed as physical or moral threats. For instance, a right-wing authoritarian might indicate support for outlawing homosexual marriage or denying abortions to women (promiscuity and homosexuality being seen as morally threatening).

Next blog post: the Social Dominance Orientation (SDO).