authoritarian personality

• supporting evidence that authoritarians are obedient- elms and milgram (1966) interviewed 20 fully obedient participants from Milgram's original obedience studies. They scored significantly higher on the F scale developed by Adorno than a comparison group of 20 disobedient participants. This suggests that obedient people may share many of the characteristics of people with an Authoritarian personality
• authoritarians cannot explain why millions of individuals in germany displayed antisemetic behaviour as they all cannot have had the same personality
• it seems unlikely the majority of germany's population had an authoritarian personality. a more likely explanation is that germans identified with the nazi state, therefore authoritarian personalities alone cannot explain the atrocities of WW2
• those with an authoritarian personality are said to have a rigid world view, an intolerance of those differing from them, respect for those higher up in society than them and prejudice against those they perceive to be 'less powerful'