What do measures of authoritarianism measure? An examination of the factor structure underlying modern measures of authoritarianism

Authoritarianism is broadly characterized as a psychological predisposition to submit to authority, behave punitively toward perceived dissenters, and prefer social control. Although psychological research on authoritarianism has been prolific since at least the early 20th century, the scope had been limited to right-wing authoritarianism until the last decade. This newer work on left-wing authoritarianism has demonstrated that authoritarianism does in fact exist across the political spectrum. Thus, an old question has been raised once more: Is there a psychological structure underlying authoritarianism that is independent from the left-right ideological dichotomy and that could be shared between those high in right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism? This thesis is the first step in reaching the future goal of developing a measure of ideologically-neutral authoritarianism. The two studies herein consist of collected responses to existing measurements of authoritarianism and related constructs like political intolerance from a sample of 2,026 U.S. adults and a sample of 587 Rutgers psychology undergraduate students. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were conducted in an attempt to ascertain whether elements of authoritarianism were shared between those on the political left and right.