1940s, Sanford and Levinson planned to devise a method to measure antisemitism

Antisemitism

Prejudice and hostility towards Jews

They were joined by Adorno and Frenkel-Brunswik, both witness of fascism.

Fascism

Political ideology or regime marked by extreme nationalism and racism, centralisation of authority and the suppression of political opposition.

Together, they set on measuring the predisposition for fascism through the authoritarian personality.

Study published in 1950 Starts with the assumption that people’s attitudes are a reflection of underlying personality

Measuring attitudes thus enables to draw conclusions about personality

Attitudes

A person’s belief and feelings about issues, events, objects or people which are thought to influence their behaviour

They set to measure:

a. attitude towards Jews
b. attitude towards people ethnically different 
c. attitude towards traditional, conservative political beliefs

Scale

Set of items such as questions on a questionnaire which combien to measure a bigger construct that cannot be measure directly

a) and b) are markers of ethnocentrism

Ethnocentrism

Belief in superiority of one own’s ethnic group or culture

They create the F-scale (fascism scale)

Their statements do not explicitly mention jews or other ethnic groups

Trying to measure personality characteristics underpinning potential for fascism

Potential for fascism, not fascism itself

Any high-scorer on F-scale ie authoritarian characteristics could potentially be swayed more by arguments suggesting prejudice towards weaker others

Authoritarianism: predisposition for facism which could become realised if political climate made right-wing ideologies socially acceptable

They measure 2000 individuals and interview 250, half high scorers, half low scorers

Average of 2h interviews about work, religion, income, politics, families, friends, social and sexual relationships

High-scorers report to have grown up in stricter family environment More likely to report having harsher disciplinarian parents

Adorno and co argue that number of unconscious processed led high-scorers: - to idealise authority figures - to redirect hatred and fear and aggression onto weaker others

Questionnaires —> quantitative data

Can be measured, counted or expressed in numerical terms

qualitative data Not numerical form eg interviews or newspapers articles

  • They used a series of questionnaires to measure attitudes to Jews and minority groups and conversative beliefts and the potential for fascism
  • They also used interviews informed by psychoanalytic theory to identify causes
  • They argued harsh discipline in early childhood caused children to unconsciously project feelings of hate unto people different from themselves