Social Psychology in the Information Age: A thread on authoritarianism

Friday, May 3, 2019

A thread on authoritarianism

It's taken me a while to read this and formulate some comments, but ultimately my reaction is as negative as most of the others I've seen [thread]. (1/n) https://t.co/qXV9hwNMeY
— Christopher Federico (@ChrisPolPsych) May 3, 2019

Above is the beginning. Worth reading the thread in its entirety. It serves as a good reminder that there is an important person-situation interaction that must be taken into account. In this case, we have to examine the sorts of issues our society's elites are constantly going on about, as their actions (as individuals, corporations, political parties, etc.) can either contain or exacerbate the authoritarian inclinations among that subset of the population that...well...has authoritarian inclinations. We live at a time in which arguably the language used by major media organs (e.g. Fox News), a major political party (GOP), and a White House occupant fan the flames of fear and loathing that pushes those who were already inclined toward authoritarianism over the edge. We've seen this play out before elsewhere historically, as well as in the current moment. I study authoritarianism primarily from the perspective as a social-personality psychologist. I only study from one angle. As Dr. Federico reminds us, the reality is considerably more nuanced.

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About

Hi! I am A. James Benjamin, Jr., PhD. Most folks call me James or JB eventually.

I am an educator trained as a social psychologist. I work as an Associate Professor at University of Arkansas-Fort Smith. I earned my PhD from University of Missouri-Columbia in 2000. Much of my research has touched on cognitive and behavioral effects of aggression-related cues (e.g., video games and weapon images), increasingly from a critical and skeptical perspective. I have also examined person variables such as authoritarianism and short-term media exposure in relation to attitudes toward violence and toward torture. My more recent interests involve the psychometric properties of various measures of aggressive cognition that are commonly used by aggression researchers. My work intersects with that of related researchers in areas such as Media Communication.

As an educator, I primarily teach methodology courses and the undergraduate survey course in social psychology. I also regularly teach the introductory psychology course. I make a point of introducing students at all levels to the replication crisis. Increasingly, I am trying interactive activities to engage students to become more critical readers of the research literature in my field.

I use this blog to express my own professional and personal perspectives. This blog is completely independent of any organizations with which I am affiliated. Assume that the views I express here are exclusively mine and do not reflect the views of any employer.