Adorno's study

• The study investigated unconscious attitudes towards other racial groups of more than 2000 middle-class white Americans
• Several scales were developed, including the potential-for-fascism scale (F-scale). Examples from the F scale (rated on scale 1 to 6 where 6 = agree strongly):

  • obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues for children to learn
  • there is hardly anything anything lower than a person who does not feel great love, gratitude and respect for his parents
• Authoritarians (scored high on F scale) identified with strong people and were contemptuous of the weak. They were conscious of their own and others status, showing excessive respect and deference to those of higher status
• Authoritarian people also had a cognitive style where there was no fuzziness between categories of people, with fixed and distinctive stereotypes (prejudices) about other groups