The Psychological Causes and Societal Consequences of Authoritarianism

Summary

A dense psychological review of authoritarianism: “the desire for group conformity at the expense of personal autonomy”. It finds roots in evolution, genes, personality and upbringing, but threat activates it, and “the type of threat matters”: danger to safety and order, not economic competition. Mostly about the right, it ends asking whether left-wing authoritarianism shares a “common psychological ‘core’”.

Rationale

We feared climate work “carrying scarcity-and-threat framing” might feed authoritarianism; an experiment cited here points that way. It finds causes mostly inside individuals; we look to the conditions around them.