Factors in obedience, dissent and prejudice

Personality

Adorno et al. (1950) developed the F (Fascism) Test to try and work out what it was in personality that made people commit atrocities in WWII
The authoritarian personality is:
- Rigid in his/her thinking
- Obedient to authority
- Sees the world in black and white
- Sticks to the social hierarchy and rules
Adorno thought that having this personality could lead to prejudice and discriminatory behaviour especially to low status groups

Rigid thinking
Likes society to have rules so it can function
Tends to obey rules and those in authority
Wants to punish those who don’t obey the rules
Prefer people to agree to submit to authority rather than using force!
Altemeyer (1996) found a positive correlation between RWA and prejudice
However, the link seems to be weakening (1 = perfect correlation, 0 = no relationship)
- 1950 – correlation of 0.64
- 1996 – correlation of 0.47
- 2001 – correlation of 0.30

Which is more powerful – the situation you are in or your personality?
How did Germany become so prejudiced against its minorities? What triggered the rise of anti-Semitism?
How did US soldiers get to the point of mistreating prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq war after 9/11?
Not all Germans were anti-semitic during WWII – and not all US soldiers took part in the prisoner abuses of Abu Ghraib – what does this tell you?
How could we use ‘contact’ to change a situation where prejudice has arisen? What sort of discussions/rules/set up would we need for people to talk to each other?

The way we are brought up – the environment and influences around us impact our thinking patterns and behaviours
Guimond et al. (2013) looked at how societies are different in prejudice depending on whether they approach their diversity policies as: Multi-cultural or Assimilation. They found those cultures/countries with multi-cultural diversity policies were lower in prejudice than others.
So prejudice might occur in mono-cultural/assimilation cultures more than multicultural societies
You might also get more prejudice in collectivist than individualistic societies as the focus is on protecting your in-group rather the individual
We might find within-cultures (emic) trends or between-cultures (etic) differences