Dogmatism as fixed form and ideology as variable content. Test of the hypothesis on the polymorphic nature of authoritarianism

Abstract

This article shows the relationships between dogmatism, radical socio-political ideology, and several measures of authoritarianism. The authors argue that authoritarianism is a polymorphic phenomenon that cannot have one expression. Polymorphism is based on dogmatism as the fixed form and ideology as the variable content. A dogmatic form of mind can be filled by both far-right and opposite far-left ideologies. Two other hypotheses were also tested. The first assumed synergistic interaction effects of dogmatism and pro-authoritarian ideologies on authoritarianism. The second stated that in the case of RWA, dogmatism is positively related to both its ideological (far right) and non-ideological component, and in the case of LWA, due to the suppression effect, dogmatism predicts only the non-ideological component. The authors verified this in a correlational study of 579 adult respondents differentiated by sex, age, and education. The results confirmed that both RWA and LWA were predicted by dogmatism, while the predictive effects of ideology are interchangeable: far-right ideology predicts RWA, and far-left ideology predicts LWA. Neither in the case of RWA nor LWA was the hypothesis of interaction dogmatism*ideologist confirmed. However, the hypothesis stating that dogmatism differently predicts the ideological and non-ideological components of RWA and LWA found empirical support.