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Human Relations
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Authoritarianism, Dominance, and Social Behavior: A Perspective from Evolutionary Personality Psychology

Robert D. Smither

Department of Psychology, Rollins College, Winter Park, Florida 32789.

The concept of authoritarianism has been widely misunderstood because of both confusion about values and science and disagreement about a definition of the concept within different areas of psychology. Research in cognitive and social psychology has focused on linking scores on authoritarianism scales with social behavior or information processing, but these efforts have not been very successful at either defining the concept or predicting behavior. In developmental research, authoritarian parenting refers to an emphasis on parental control and decision making. Organizational authoritarianism has been linked to higher productivity and, in some cases, with lower job satisfaction. One way of making sense of the variety of definitions of authoritarianism is in terms of evolutionary personality theory and the concepts of dominance and submission. These biological concepts are relevant to both human and animal behavior, and they can be used to explain authoritarianism in scientific, rather than pejorative, terms.

Key Words: authoritarianism • evolutionary personality psychology • dominance • group behavior

Human Relations, Vol. 46, No. 1, 23-43 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/001872679304600103
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