Very Short Authoritarianism Scale

What it measures

This ultra-short scale measures right-wing authoritarianism with just six items, two for each of its classic facets: submission to authority, adherence to traditional conventions, and aggression toward those seen as threatening social order. Each pair combines a conventionally keyed and a reverse-keyed item to control acquiescence. Bizumic and Duckitt (2018) selected the items from their longer Authoritarianism-Conservatism-Traditionalism scale for use in large surveys where space is limited. Conrey and Haney (2024) used it with 299 U.S. adults recruited through Prolific and stratified by age, sex and ethnicity, alongside a student pilot sample, in research on public attitudes toward police surveillance.

Response format

9-point Likert (−4 = very strongly disagree to +4 = very strongly agree)

Scale items

Authoritarian submission / conservatism

• It's great that many young people today are prepared to defy authority. (r)
• What our country needs most is discipline, with everyone following our leaders in unity

Conventionalism / traditionalism

• God's laws about abortion, pornography, and marriage must be strictly followed before it is too late.
• There is nothing wrong with premarital sexual intercourse. (r)

Authoritarian aggression

• Our society does NOT need tougher government and stricter laws. (r)
• The facts on crime and the recent public disorders show we have to crack down harder on troublemakers, if we are going [to] preserve law and order.

Full scale items shown. Always cite the original source when using this scale in research.

Usage notes & scoring

Alpha was .83 in the census-stratified Prolific sample but only .67 in the undergraduate pilot (Conrey and Haney 2024); the original validation reported .71 to .78 (Bizumic and Duckitt 2018). As with other very short scales, reliability is noticeably higher in heterogeneous adult samples than in student samples, so the scale is best suited to general-population surveys. The VSA correlates highly with Altemeyer's full RWA scale (.86). In Conrey and Haney's study, VSA scores did not significantly predict acceptance of police surveillance once legal authoritarianism and other factors were included. Items 1, 4 and 5 are reverse-scored. Item 6 is printed in the source without the word "to" ("if we are going preserve"), shown here in brackets. For a longer measure see the 15-item short RWA scale (ID 90472).

Citation

Conrey, C., & Haney, C. (2024). Understanding attitudes toward police surveillance: The role of authoritarianism, fear of crime, and private-sector surveillance attitudes. Surveillance & Society, 22(4), 428–447.

Keywords

More Political & Social Marketing scales

• Right-Wing Authoritarianism Scale (Short Version)2019 · 15 items
• Wilson–Patterson Conservatism Scale1968 · 50 items
• Social and Economic Conservatism Scale2013 · 12 items
• Economic System Justification Scale2023 · 17 items
• Political Ideology Scale2017 · 3 items
• Internal Political Efficacy1991 · 4 items