This country would be better off if we cared less about how equal all people are.

Some groups of people are simply not the equals of others.

Some people are just more worthy than others.

And disagree with these:

If people were treated more equally, we would have fewer problems in this country.

We should try to treat one another as equals as much as possible.

Increased social equality.

...you may be an Authoritarian Leader!  

Social Dominators

According to Dr. Altemeyer, the high Social Dominators win the silver medal to the RWA's bronze in the prejudice olympics.  If you got a high RWA and a high Social Dominant together for a beer and got them talking about immigrants, feminists, socialism, taxes, Jews, The Gays, etc, they'd probably talk long into the night and find they agreed on most everything.  However, there are major differences between the two.  Social dominators are rarely authoritarian followers, and vice versa. Their main differences are in the desire for power, empathy, religion, and the roots of their hostility.  

Desire for power

High social dominants have a higher desire for power, and RWAs did not in two studies conducted by Dr. Altemeyer.  No righteous cause, just power for power's sake.  They'll anonymously admit that winning is more important that being ethical, that they will do their best to destroy anyone who gets in their way.  Altemeyer uses a Power Mad scale to measure this kind of thing.  I'm sure that many of us have worked for this asshole kind of person at one time or another.  

Empathy

The ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes to understand and care about what's happening to them?  Nope, nothing to see here with the social dominant. People get what they deserve, so if you're poor, sick, destitute, addicted, downsized, or exploited, it's your own fault, loser.  Give to charity?  That's for losers.  Jesus?  Loser.  

Religion

High RWAs tend to be Fundies.  Social dominators do not.  Some may go to church and act the part, but they do it for manipulative reasons, such as advancing their social status.  Check out the The "Exploitive Manipulative Amoral Dishonesty Scale" on page 7.  Oy, these people.  They scare the hell out of me.  

Roots of hostility

It seems to me that it boils down to this: RWAs hate what their version of the bible or their pastor tells them to.  Their hostility is sanctioned by their authoritarian leaders.  Social dominators just have their hate on for everyone.  Social dominance is their main order of business so any type of perceived vulnerability is an easy target for them.  

They don't fear society's collapse into lawlessness like the RWAs do, because laws are for losers who get caught breaking them.  They also lack the self righteousness of the RWAs.  They don't need a good reason for having power, they just want the power.  

The mental life of the social dominator

They've pretty much got it together (if you don't count the more sociopathic tendencies).  They can be quite logical, and they lack the mental compartmentalization of the RWA follower.  Their files are merged, so to speak.  They're also not dogmatic or zealous, since they don't tend to believe in anything except getting power and domination.  

Personal origins of the social dominator

It seems that it's hard to say where the trait comes from.  Their experiences seem to teach them that:

Deceit and cheating were good tactics because it led to what they wanted.

Taking advantage of "suckers" felt great.

They've enjoyed having power and having people afraid of them.

"Losers" deserved what happened to them.

It's smart to use whatever power you have in a situation to get what you want.

Life boils down to what you can get away with.

People who suffer misfortunes deserve them because they are lazy or dumb or
made bad moves.

And of course, they say their lives have taught them that "Life is a jungle."

There isn't a strong correlation with the parent, so it doesn't appear to be learned like with the high RWA follower.  There is a chance that it is genetic.  And can't you just here it now, a great excuse for the appaling behaviour of a social dominator - "What?  I can't help it, I was born this way, and if you don't let me completely control you as is my nature, you're violating my civil rights!"  

The Lethal Union

"Lethal union" is now used to describe the mix of an Authoritarian in the drivers seat and a RWA follower at their beck and call.  This section highlights an experiment using social dominators, RWAs, and a mock business situation with serious ethical considerations.  I have to say, this section depressed me.  

Double Highs: The Dominating Authoritarian Personality

What do you get when you combine the very worst traits of the social dominator and the RWA follower?  The scariest of them all, the Double High.  Which makes me want to make it a double.  

So who are these Double Highs? Simply put, they are "religious" social dominators. They usually had much more religious upbringings than social
dominators typically had, or they may have "got religion" as adults. As a group their fervor does not quite reach the levels found among ordinary right-wing authoritarians. But they go to church much more than most people in my samples do. Ditto for being religious fundamentalists. Ditto for being religiously ethnocentric. They thus respond to the religious content on the RWA scale, which ordinary social dominators do not,
and that helps make them Double Highs

5 to 10% of samples are this type.  They're the gold medal winners in the prejudice Olympics, and also score highest on Altemeyer's "Militia" scale, developed after the Oklahoma City bombing. It measures the belief that a Jewish cabal is taking over US through gun laws and the UN, among other things.  

So what's the big deal about the double high?  Why are they so dangerous?

But a Double High has the best chance of attracting this army of yearning and
loyal supporters. He comes packaged as "one of our own," one of the in-group. He not
only shares their prejudices, their economic philosophy, and their political leanings,
he also professes their religious views, and that can mean everything to high RWAs.
He too may be faking his religiousness to some extent, but he will have the credentials
up front, and the phrase-dropping familiarity with the Bible to pass the test with flying
colors. He'll know the code words of the movement. He'll appear to believe everything "all the good people" believe about Satan, being born again, evolution, the role of women, sex abortion, school prayer, law and order, "perverts," censorship, zealotry, holy wars, America-as-God's-right-hand, and so on. Given this head start, you can expect to find a Double High leading most of the right-wing authoritarian groups in our country.

The Global Change game was run again, this time after the players had been screened for high social dominance.  When you read about the experiment and the results, you may better understand why the world is the way it us.  

Dr. Altemeyer wraps up this chapter talking about famous double highs that we have known.  I know you all guessed correctly who Congressman X is.  

As a special bonus, Dr. Bob Altemeyer has graciously agreed to answer your questions about The Authoritarians!  Yes, right here on the blog!  Could you plotz?  So leave your question for the good Doctor in the comments, and when he has a chance he will swing by and answer at his convenience.  I am NOT kidding, either.