Detecting Authoritarianism Efficiently: Psychometric Properties of the Screening Instrument Authoritarianism – Ultra Short (A-US) in a German Representative Sample

Heller, Ayline; Decker, Oliver; Schmalbach, Bjarne; Beutel, Manfred E.; Fegert, Jörg M.; Brähler, Elmar; Zenger, Markus

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2020.533863

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This suggests that there may be a stronger relation of interpersonal trust to the acceptance of violence as well. As the A-US scale is not very well fit to differentiate between the three dimensions of authoritarianism (Heller, Zenger, et al, 2020), these results should only be seen as preliminary and should be further examined in future studies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…The Authoritarianism -Ultra Short (A-US) scale was used to measure authoritarianism. It consists of three items, one for each dimension of authoritarianism (aggression, submission and conventionalism; for original wording as well as English translations following Heller, Zenger, et al (2020), see Table 2). The items were selected from the Short Scale for Authoritarianism (KSA-3, Beierlein, Asbrock, Kauff, & Schmidt, 2014), taking the item with the highest factor loading for each dimension of the KSA-3 in order to best represent those dimensions in the A-US.…”

Section: Variables/measures Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The sum score was not calculated if more than one item was missing. The A-US sum score has adequate validity and reliability to measure authoritarianism with internal consistency measured by McDonald's ω (1999) ranging between 0.68 and 0.71 in three samples, with limits regarding assessment of the three dimensions (Heller, Zenger, et al, 2020).…”

Section: Variables/measures Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

On the association of interpersonal trust with right-wing extremist and authoritarian attitudes

Heller

Wicke

Kasinger

et al. 2022

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

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Right-wing extremism and authoritarianism have been identified as major, if not the major threats to democracy in recent years. The rise of right-wing extremist and populist parties in many democratic countries throughout the world has renewed the interest in identifying the roots and determinants of these anti-democratic attitudes. Even though factors on many levels of analysis (macro-, meso- and micro-level) have been taken into consideration as possible sources of the development of these kinds of positions, the relationship of interpersonal trust with both right-wing extremism and authoritarianism has yet to be systematically examined. The aim of the current study was to shed light on the connection between these constructs by analyzing data from a German representative study conducted in 2018 (N = 2,416). Multiple linear regression found interpersonal trust to reliably predict all facets of right-wing extremism and authoritarianism included in the study, even when controlling for standard socioeconomic factors (e.g. age, gender, education, income). The lack of interpersonal trust may thus be seen as a major contributing factor to right-wing extremist and authoritarian attitudes. As such, it should be included in future studies about this topic and the nature of the revealed connection should be further examined.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Variables/measures Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Variables/measures Authoritarianismmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

On the association of interpersonal trust with right-wing extremist and authoritarian attitudes

Heller

Wicke

Kasinger

et al. 2022

J. Soc. Polit. Psych.

Self Cite

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“…While recent attempts to develop balanced short-scales have been reasonably successful with regards to the psychometric properties, there is still a risk of content overlap with criterion variables especially in the area of religiousness ( cf. Heller et al, 2020 ). Another aspect, that could not be sufficiently addressed here, is that of cross-cultural validity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education

Heller

Decker²,

Clemens³

et al. 2022

Front. Psychol.

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Modern theories of authoritarianism have stressed the importance of threat to the expression of authoritarian attitudes and intolerance. Arguably, authoritarian tendencies may have increased during COVID-19 pandemic, a major threat to life and security. One issue arising when comparing mean scores is that of measurement invariance. Meaningful comparisons are only possible, if latent constructs are similar between groups and/or across time. This prerequisite is rarely ever tested in research on authoritarianism. In this study, we aim to analyze the short scale for authoritarianism KSA-3 by investigating its measurement invariance on two levels (three first-order and one second-order factors) and latent mean changes using two German representative samples (N = 4,905). Specifically, we look at differences before and during the pandemic (2017 vs. 2020). While measurement invariance holds across both levels in all conditions, we find a decrease in latent means in 2020, contrary to expectations and established theories. Moreover, latent means differ with regard to gender, education, and east–west Germany. We conclude that analyses of latent means and measurement invariance instead of mean comparisons with composites should become the standard. Future studies should focus on threat as a moderator between authoritarianism and intolerance, and on possible interactions with context variables.

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“…Concurrently, they developed the Authoritarianism–Conservatism–Traditionalism (ACT) scales to measure the three related but distinct dimensions proposed in their ACT model. The combined ACT scales are now amongst the most widely used measures of RWA (Heller et al, 2020), and they have been validated in several countries (e.g., New Zealand, Israel, United States of America, Romania, and Serbia; Duckitt et al, 2010; Duckitt & Bizumic, 2013). However, the ACT scales have not been widely used in Asia, and there have been no formal investigations of their psychometric properties in Asian populations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Evidence of method effects in the authoritarianism-conservatism-traditionalism scales

Chew

Ramsay

2023

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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Right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) is notoriously complex, multifaceted, and difficult to measure as a psychological construct. Recently, Duckitt et al. developed the ACT scales, offering theoretical refinement of the RWA construct. Although the validity of the ACT scales had been supported by a considerable body of research, shortcomings in previous analyses cannot rule out the existence of possible method effects. In the present research, we sought to test for the presence of such effects in a representative community sample of adults in Singapore (N = 738). We re-evaluated the factor structure of the ACT scales by assessing four separate models using an item-based approach in our confirmatory factor analyses. Results found significant method effects associated with both the pro-trait and con-trait items in the ACT scales. The implications of these results and possible strategies for controlling method effects in the ACT scales are discussed.

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Detecting Authoritarianism Efficiently: Psychometric Properties of the Screening Instrument Authoritarianism – Ultra Short (A-US) in a German Representative Sample

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

On the association of interpersonal trust with right-wing extremist and authoritarian attitudes

On the association of interpersonal trust with right-wing extremist and authoritarian attitudes

Changes in authoritarianism before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Comparisons of latent means across East and West Germany, gender, age, and education

Evidence of method effects in the authoritarianism-conservatism-traditionalism scales

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