As an eldest daughter, I can understand the appeal of authoritarianism. I was put in charge of these lesser beings, my siblings, by parental authority figures. Of course, they rebelled against my rule but I found that scaring them with the threat of home invasion and the paranormal—which only I could control– worked well to keep them under my thumb. Somehow, I inherently knew that making the world, or at least those nights when I babysat, a scary place worked in my favor.  I’m glad to say I grew out of my tyrannical ways. I can’t say how it happened. Maybe I decided I couldn’t pull it off for the rest of my life, or, having a happy childhood, I outgrew it. Good thing! It was antithetical to being a scientist.

Scientists are drawn to a dynamic body of knowledge that builds and expands. Authoritarianism is a form of ignorance, governing by omission of information. It’s often static. That’s why science and authoritarianism clash.  Authoritarianism most often fails, but it can last way too long for the life of a scientist. 

Authoritarianism is fueled by both ideology and prejudice and is held up by two worldviews. Followers often follow the first view, leaders the second view, and some people have both views.

1. The world is a dangerous, unstable and un-predictable place. A candidate appealing to this group will take a dark world view. Coercing people into conforming helps stabilize the status quo. Punishing people for violating the norm is encouraged. Scary people are at the door!  Crime is up! You’re going to need weapons! This is particularly true for right wing authoritarians (shown here in cartoon) and people who grew up with instability who have not developed “openness.”

• The desire to socially dominate in a competitive world where the strong survive and the weak perish. These people cultivate inequality and see themselves as tough. They don’t like participation trophies. They aren’t afraid to lie. Lies make them strong when people believe them. 

One important step along the way is creating prejudice. First, an out group must be identified as both threatening to the social order and capable of competing with the dominant societal groups. I was once at a bookstore selling some of my novels alongside a person selling Pella history books. She told me that Pella was once a coal mining town. When miners went on strike, the mining company went to the South and brought back black miners to break the strike, creating prejudice.

This might explain this racist political advertisement, which combines fear, subtle prejudice, and the superiority of the white, small-town life. And it’s not the only one that will flood your screen. Most authoritarian prejudice is towards people perceived as scary, people perceived as weak (lazy, old), and people perceived as different.  

Authoritarians in general support these types of policies:

1. Leaving cooperative alliances with others. Brexit for example lead to the United Kingdom exiting The European Union
2. Aggressive behavior to others such as corporal punishment, banning abortion for rape victims, and forced assimilation (one language polices, forced religion) which involves removing civil rights. 
3. Belief that your country should not be criticized.
4. Rigid stands against personal choices and public health and safety if they oppose monied interests, including those that honestly help the group such as maintaining a clean environment. 
5. Refusal to accept evidence and lack of awareness of anything that goes against their beliefs.
6. Unambiguous rules and morality. 
7. Unity means conformity, as this authoritarian expert points out in a bone chilling analysis of the RNC convention.
8. Restraints on voting and participation.

Both right and left political views can follow authoritarians but in general, left-wing authoritarianism is much less prevalent and focuses on the good of society. It still can suffer many of the flaws of authoritarianism. By definition, right wing politics promotes social hierarchy and meshes better with authoritarianism. 

Authoritarianism is having a global resurgence. Only 20% of global citizens enjoy what would be classified as freedom. Iowa itself has repeatedly put well-funded authoritarians, often connected with  Christian Nationalists,  at the helm. Authoritarianism is the way with Christian Nationalism. Every bona fide pastor should be denouncing it but they won’t because they know what will happen at the hands of their authoritarian congregation members. 

Authoritarian candidates see generous funding and not just from Christian Nationalists. Many tech billionaires in the US says they don’t believe in democracy anymore. One of those men gave us JD Vance. Elon Musk alone is pledging tens of millions of dollars per month to Trump. 

In general, traits needed to be a good scientist such as honesty, preference for group-based hierarchy (team players), and openness to experience do not promote authoritarianism and are negatively associated with conservatism. Thus, you will see right-wing authoritarians actively opposing scientists. 

Although scientists promoted masking to protect classrooms from COVID, the Iowa Governor chose to listen to and promote a right-wing mom group. In fact, I know of people in Pella who would not get a covid test and got mad at people who did because they did not want to make their authoritarian governor look bad. 

Noted climate scientist James Hansen is from Iowa. You’d think we’d be proud of him and have our elected ones consult him. Instead, our state leaders ignore him and get scientific advice from Ashton Kutcher. Extreme weather is associated with climate change, yet authoritarians want to cut weather forecasting and study because they tell it like it is.

A downside of right-wing authoritarianism, which has been studied more than left-wing authoritarianism because it is more of a threat, is that the population will be exploited by right-wing leaders and will become less innovative and less open to learning and exploration. Because they are by nature dishonest and even unaware, authoritarians most often fall into corruption. Authoritarians are a danger to a country.

A right-wing society also faces more intergroup conflict because it promotes hostility, competition, and rigid beliefs. I like football and recognize that team sports can help foster cooperation but we are such a competitive society these days that people have to have therapy when their favorite team loses.  The dark triad of high narcissism “fosters a competitive worldview.”

You can see these elements in this t-shirt. The shirt implies others might step out of bounds and need to be strong armed and removed from town.

Many right-wing leaders have emerged recently. They most often arise out of a chaotic situation which is why they love to sew more chaos and out-group hostility. Trump and the Iowa Republicans are such leaders. Trump and Republicans have authoritarian plans for education, which wipes out any intercultural understanding. Iowa appears to be a test case for Pr0ject 2O25 which is distinctly uncooperative and right wing. 

Authoritarianism is a harmful societal ideal which ultimately undercuts personal autonomy, a key to happiness and diminishes democracy. It undermines science and public health. It cuts creativity, which requires openness. 

To resist authoritarianism, point out their corruption and stand up for human rights. People who dislike authoritarianism and prefer intergroup cooperation are a diverse group of people, so appreciating some differences of opinion is important. Leave the absolutes to the authoritarians! Not all of them are not going to grow up, unfortunately. 

Most of the information for this post comes from this review article in the prestigious science journal Nature.