The best predictor of Trump support isn't income, education, or age. It's authoritarianism.

[Brian4Liberty]

The best predictor of Trump support isn't income, education, or age. It's authoritarianism.

...
What I found is a trend that has been widely overlooked. A voter’s gender, education, age, ideology, party identification, income, and race simply had no statistical bearing on whether someone supported Trump. Neither, despite predictions to the contrary, did evangelicalism.

Here is what did: authoritarianism, by which I mean Americans’ inclination to authoritarian behavior. When political scientists use the term authoritarianism, we are not talking about dictatorships but about a worldview. People who score high on the authoritarian scale value conformity and order, protect social norms, and are wary of outsiders. And when authoritarians feel threatened, they support aggressive leaders and policies.

Authoritarianism and a hybrid variable that links authoritarianism with a personal fear of terrorism were the only two variables that predicted, with statistical significance, support for Trump.

Put simply, Trump won South Carolina because of the overwhelming, unyielding support of authoritarian voters. This chart shows the predicted relationship between authoritarianism and support for Trump. It is statistically and substantively significant — and, as you can see from the upward plot of the line, stunning.
...
Both surveys measured authoritarianism with a simple battery of four questions related to parenting. Political scientists, including Marc Hetherington, Jonathan Weiler, and Karen Stenner, have used these questions since the early 1990s to estimate authoritarianism because of their accuracy in predicting authoritarian behavior.
...
While the connection between authoritarianism and threat is not new, there can be a propensity of people who are lower on the authoritarian scale to behave more like authoritarians when threatened — as the political scientists Hetherington and Suhay demonstrated in a 2011 study in the American Journal of Political Science.

The practical implication of this connection is that Americans who are not strong authoritarians behave more like them when they feel threatened. This is exactly the behavior found among South Carolinian supporters of Trump: Voters who had lower scores on the authoritarianism scale were more likely to support Trump if they were more concerned about terrorism.
...
More: http://www.vox.com/2016/2/23/1109964...thoritarianism

[tod evans]

Take the test here.




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[Mod edit: Different test than used in OP study.]

[Edit the mod edit because these 4 questions referred too came from the test above]

[Origanalist]

Take the test here.

I will be taking that when I get back home, any bets on how I score?

[AuH20]

I don't even like my neighbors. Why should I like outsiders trying to tamper with things even further? We already live in a statist hellhole and then we have outsiders that intend to make it even more oppressive.

[Brian4Liberty]

Take the test here.

Definitely not the same test.

Both surveys measured authoritarianism with a simple battery of four questions related to parenting.

[kpitcher]

That test needs some updating : " [22] Wars and social troubles may someday be ended by an earthquake or flood that will destroy the whole world. "

What no zombie apocalypse? How dissapointing

[4RandPaul]

People want to get stuff done.

[tod evans]

Definitely not the same test.

Here is the best guess at 4 of the 30 questions in the original test;

https://www.psychologistworld.com/in...ersonality.php

How much do you agree with the following statements?


People can be divided into two distinct classes - the weak and the strong.
Some people are born with the urge to jump from high places.
No weakness or difficulty can hold us back if we have enough willpower.
Most of our social problems would be solved if we could somehow get rid of the immoral, crooked and feeble-minded people.

[Rad]

"You are a liberal airhead."

[bubbleboy]

come on guys... Join the Revolution. Its not about Trump.

[RJ Liberty]

The best predictor of Trump support isn't income, education, or age. It's authoritarianism.

This is no surprise; their findings are similar to the reactions on this forum when there was a protester at a Trump rally who was already being led out by authorities; they thought it was just great when someone sucker-punched him on the way out. This is the mentality of many Trump supporters.

[Smitty]

I think it's much more simple than that.

Conservative minded people want someone in charge who isn't afraid of the Communists who control the Democratic Party.

Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich all had the opportunity to stand up to the Communists after they rioted in Chicago a couple of days ago. They didn't have the nerve.

They curled up in the fetal position and sniveled about Trump's "tone" instead.

If they didn't stand up to them then, they won't stand up to them ever.

Meanwhile, Trump is back out there on the campaign trail, getting in front of thousands of people and putting himself in harms way to deliver his message.

I guess the rest of them are still hiding under the bed.

[klamath]

Pretty much what Ron said about Trump and he is right. They are scared, and they want a big man to protect them.

[Smitty]

Trump supporters just want representation like everybody else has.

Conservative minded people have had none in a long time.

Any pondering of the matter beyond that is a waste of time.

[tod evans]

Trump supporters just want representation like everybody else has.

Conservative minded people have had none in a long time.

Any pondering of the matter beyond that is a waste of time.

Big difference between representation and leadership.

[Smitty]

semantics

[tod evans]

semantics

So stop it.

[klamath]

Nothing conservative about trump. Conservative always meant smaller government not just more powerful government but is Trump is what is now called conservative I want no part of it.

[Antischism]

Yeah, I read this a while back and contemplated making a thread. Good article.

[Smitty]

Nothing conservative about trump. .

He's more conservative than the globalists and the communists,...and that's the only other options.

[enhanced_deficit]

"Put simply, Trump won South Carolina because of the overwhelming, unyielding support of authoritarian voters.?

Trump also won other 13 States so far, he has won among various dmogrphic including evangelicals, highly educated, undereducated, Hispanics in NV and so on. How did the writer determine they are "authoritarian"? If he had said they are angry , fed up, protectionist, anti-politician, pro closed borders etc, that at least has been measured in some polls.

If these are same "authoritarians" who used to support US tax payers funded military interventions & regime changes abroad , US being policeman of the world etc., then there is progress if they now support US minding its own business at home.

70% of a nation could not have supported invasion of Iraq in 2003 using bogus racial doctrines without being infected with some sort of "authoritarian" or supremacist virus but it appears that for the first time in many decades GOP base is starting to embrace a less authoritarian foreign policy and wants to build America. To the untrained eye, it would appear that there are authoritarian pockets among supporters of all R & D candidates with few true libertarian exceptions.
If Trump's hurricane force personlity cuses demolition of GOP establishment/neocon order/current controlled media, many of his supporters probably won't mind.

[CPUd]

Pretty much what Ron said about Trump and he is right. They are scared, and they want a big man to protect them.

This is a common trait I've noticed as well. They believe it is the job of the POTUS to keep them safe.

[Suzanimal]

Take the test here.




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[Mod edit: Different test than used in OP study.]

I swear The Texan wrote some of those questions.

[Danke]

I swear The Texan wrote some of those questions.

"You are disciplined but tolerant; a true American."

[VIDEODROME]

Maybe they feel American Exceptionalism is threatened and they're freaking out.

[AuH20]

I think it's much more simple than that.

Conservative minded people want someone in charge who isn't afraid of the Communists who control the Democratic Party.

Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich all had the opportunity to stand up to the Communists after they rioted in Chicago a couple of days ago. They didn't have the nerve.

They curled up in the fetal position and sniveled about Trump's "tone" instead.

If they didn't stand up to them then, they won't stand up to them ever.

Meanwhile, Trump is back out there on the campaign trail, getting in front of thousands of people and putting himself in harms way to deliver his message.

I guess the rest of them are still hiding under the bed.

Since we are not legally permitted to smash Communist skulls, what do they expect us to do? Americans have been neutered by every law in the book. We're tired of being abused by their authoritarians, so it's time to reciprocate. Until the halcyon days of anarchy come, we're reduced to the joke we call the ballot box.

[kahless]

I think it's much more simple than that.

Conservative minded people want someone in charge who isn't afraid of the Communists who control the Democratic Party.

Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich all had the opportunity to stand up to the Communists after they rioted in Chicago a couple of days ago. They didn't have the nerve.

They curled up in the fetal position and sniveled about Trump's "tone" instead.

If they didn't stand up to them then, they won't stand up to them ever.

Meanwhile, Trump is back out there on the campaign trail, getting in front of thousands of people and putting himself in harms way to deliver his message.

I guess the rest of them are still hiding under the bed.

Trump supporters just want representation like everybody else has.

Conservative minded people have had none in a long time.

Any pondering of the matter beyond that is a waste of time.

He's more conservative than the globalists and the communists,...and that's the only other options.

[RandallFan]

Sounds like Trump will do well in the suburbs of northern cities.

[r3volution 3.0]

Pretty much what Ron said about Trump and he is right. They are scared, and they want a big man to protect them.

That's about the size of it.

Bunch of pussies...

...if you ask me.

[Smitty]

That's about the size of it.

Bunch of pussies...

...if you ask me.