Authoritarianism Beyond Disposition: A Literature Review of Research on Contextual Antecedents

Caroline Schnelle; Dirk Baier; Andreas Hadjar; Klaus Boehnke

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.676093

Authoritarianism Beyond Disposition: A Literature Review of Research on Contextual Antecedents

Front Psychol. 2021 Jun 24:12:676093. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.676093. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Caroline Schnelle¹, Dirk Baier², Andreas Hadjar^{3

4}, Klaus Boehnke^{1

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Psychology and Methods, Jacobs University Bremen, Bremen, Germany.
² Institute of Delinquency and Crime Prevention, Zurich University of Applied Sciences, Winterthur, Switzerland.
³ Department of Social Science, Institute of Education and Society, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg.
⁴ Department of Social Work, Social Policy and Global Development, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland.
⁵ Center for Sociocultural Research, National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

A core debate in authoritarianism research relates to the stability of authoritarianism, i.e., whether it is a dispositional phenomenon socialized in early childhood or even genetically predisposed, or whether it is impacted by time-sensitive, exterior conditions. Whereas certain individual authoritarian tendencies emerge as a rather stable personality trait, there is also empirical evidence for a dynamic influence of external factors. This review article provides a conceptual multilevel framework for the study of authoritarianism and offers an insight into the state-of-research on socialization and situational influences, with a particular focus on threat. Findings are discussed with regard to key theories of authoritarianism.

Keywords: authoritarianism; contextual; personality; socialization; threat.

Publication types

Review