Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Short Version)
RWAAuthoritarian Submission, Authoritarian Aggression and Conventionalism
15 items
2019
α 0.94 (U.S. MTurk adults, N = 410)
Free
Hendricks, M. J.
What it measures
This scale measures right-wing authoritarianism: the combination of submission to established authorities, aggression toward those seen as deviant or threatening, and adherence to traditional social conventions. Zakrisson (2005) shortened Altemeyer's (1998) 30-item scale to 15 items with briefer, less extreme wording, fewer references to specific groups such as women or gay people, and a balance of conventional and reverse-keyed items, so that the measure captures authoritarianism itself rather than the prejudices it predicts. Hendricks (2019) used the scale with 410 U.S. adults recruited through MTurk while developing a measure of perceived terrorist threat.
Response format
Likert agreement; Zakrisson (2005) used 1–7 (very negative to very positive) in the final version. Hendricks (2019) did not state the format for this scale, though the study's other measures used 9-point scales
Scale items
- Our country needs a powerful leader, in order to destroy the radical and immoral currents prevailing in society today.
- Our country needs free thinkers, who will have the courage to stand up against traditional ways, even if this upsets many people. (r)
- The "old-fashioned ways" and "old-fashioned values" still show the best way to live.
- Our society would be better off if we showed tolerance and understanding for untraditional values and opinions. (r)
- God's laws about abortion, pornography and marriage must be strictly followed before it is too late, violations must be punished.
- The society needs to show openness towards people thinking differently, rather than a strong leader, the world is not particularly evil or dangerous. (r)
- It would be best if newspapers were censored so that people would not be able to get hold of destructive and disgusting material.
- Many good people challenge the state, criticize the church and ignore "the normal way of living". (r)
- Our forefathers ought to be honored more for the way they have built our society, at the same time we ought to put an end to those forces destroying it.
- People ought to put less attention to the Bible and religion, instead they ought to develop their own moral standards. (r)
- There are many radical, immoral people trying to ruin things; the society ought to stop them.
- It is better to accept bad literature than to censor it. (r)
- Facts show that we have to be harder against crime and sexual immorality, in order to uphold law and order.
- The situation in the society of today would be improved if troublemakers were treated with reason and humanity. (r)
- If the society so wants, it is the duty of every true citizen to help eliminate the evil that poisons our country from within.
Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.
Usage notes & scoring
Alpha was .94 in Hendricks's (2019) U.S. MTurk sample (N = 410), well above the .72 to .80 Zakrisson (2005) reported across three Swedish high school and university samples; reliability appears higher in heterogeneous adult samples than in student samples. Authoritarianism correlated positively with perceived terrorist threat, most strongly with threat to political attitudes and decision-making (Hendricks 2019). In Zakrisson's validation, a CFA supported the three classic facets of authoritarian aggression, conventionalism and authoritarian submission (chi-square(86) = 96.52, p = .19, GFI = .93), the scale correlated only moderately with social dominance orientation (r = .33), and it predicted modern racism and sexism beyond SDO. The seven even-numbered items are reverse-scored; responses are averaged. For Social Dominance Orientation see ID 381.
Citation
Hendricks, M. J. (2019). Toward the development of a Terrorist Threat Scale. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 25(2), 148–151.
Keywords
#right-wingauthoritarianism#authoritarianism#politicalideology#conventionalism#socialconservatism#threat