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A review by bartonstanley
The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer
2.0
I read this book because I had heard that it would help me understand Donald Trump's followers. The author seems to have gone to great lengths to show that the information he is presenting is quantitatively based. There are copious notes and references to lots of studies and the results of surveys. Generally speaking, I found his conclusions to match what I already believed and I gained some new insights due to its somewhat systematic analysis.
However, all of this was undercut by the author's disdain for right-wing authoritarian followers and for social dominators. Look, if someone has a personality disorder most psychologists would frown upon those who would be disdainful of that person. As I understand it, the generally agreed-upon approach is to understand the disorder without making judgments about the person's behavior and through that understanding try to help them.
This approach is not used here, and while I understand that most subjects think they are fine and don't want to be helped (especially by a "shrink"), the disdain is still distracting and distasteful. More importantly it brings into question whether the studies and the research the author performed were truly unbiased. After Googling a bit I can see that the author is highly regarded but I cannot let that sway me from questioning his bias and therefore his conclusions. Just because the conclusions are what I want them to be doesn't mean that they were truly reached in a scientific manner. As such, I consider every conclusion in the book provisional. Not without merit, mind you, but provisional.
However, all of this was undercut by the author's disdain for right-wing authoritarian followers and for social dominators. Look, if someone has a personality disorder most psychologists would frown upon those who would be disdainful of that person. As I understand it, the generally agreed-upon approach is to understand the disorder without making judgments about the person's behavior and through that understanding try to help them.
This approach is not used here, and while I understand that most subjects think they are fine and don't want to be helped (especially by a "shrink"), the disdain is still distracting and distasteful. More importantly it brings into question whether the studies and the research the author performed were truly unbiased. After Googling a bit I can see that the author is highly regarded but I cannot let that sway me from questioning his bias and therefore his conclusions. Just because the conclusions are what I want them to be doesn't mean that they were truly reached in a scientific manner. As such, I consider every conclusion in the book provisional. Not without merit, mind you, but provisional.