Friday, November 8, 2013

Some more authoritarianism data

I and some students have been in the process of analyzing the latest wave of data that we have collected on RWA, using Funke's (2005) measure of authoritarian attitudes. Among the analyses are those between RWA and various dimensions measured on Weems et al.'s (2012) conservatism-liberalism scale: economic, social, intolerance, and racial/ethnic resentment. So far, partial correlations replicate something I noticed in some pilot data collected last year: essentially a zero correlation between economic conservatism and RWA, and strong correlations between RWA and both social conservatism and intolerance. I'll need to spend a bit more time examining the various RWA subscales in relation to Weems et al.'s (2012) measure, but this initial peek looks promising. I also have some analyses by party affiliation and ideology yet to examine. Something enlightening should show up there, as well. There is something psychologically different between those who truly are authoritarian and those whose conservatism may extend merely to matters of economics.

Out of curiosity, one other analysis I have run is one in which I look at overall levels of social and economic conservatism in Little Dixie - the region in which I work, and in which my participants reside. Thus far, continuing a long-standing pattern, it appears that Little Dixie residents are still somewhat socially conservative but economically liberal/populist.

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