65 would seem to be all that could be
expected
(see Chapter IV).
Adorno-T-Authoritarian-Personality-Harper-Bros-1950
)
115
86
Pre-Prison Occupation
COOk
Grocery manager
PllJIIber
Truck driver
Farmer; soldier? pensioner
Irregular odd jobs
Homsexual pros? titute; occa- sional clerk
TABLE 1 (XXI)
IDENTIFYING DATA FUR INTERVIEWEES IN '111E PRISON INMATES GROUP
a As o f
bThese ratings are estimates by the examiner, using Lloyd Warner? s categories: "Upper
November,
Upper, ? "Lower Upper, ? "Upper Middle, ? "Lower Middle, ? "Upper Lower, ? "Lower Lower. ?
1945.
KEY FOR CONNECTING NAMES GIVEN TO INTERVIEWEES IN THIS CHAPTER WITH NUMBERS USED IN PART IV:
Ronald: M651A Clarence: M664B J i m : M619
Robert: M656A Floyd: M658 Don: M620
Eugene: M662A Wilbur: M662B Adrian: M661A Buck: M664C
3 94
11 125
14 122
83
11 117
12 123
12 112
14 130
"Cattleman?
Messenger;
clerk
Salesman
Clerk
C011111ercial
a r t i s t
D i c k : M621A
A r t : M621B
? Present Offense
Murder during gang robbery
Killed mistress in quarrel
Check-writing
Killed landlord in knife fight
Attempted rape (girl 12)
Gang robberies
Robbery '111th cap pistol
Check-writing while drunk
While drunk, clubbed elderly 110man to death
Benk robberies (alone): to PlliY mother? s debts
Stole auto while drunk
Check-writlng while drunk
Previous Delin<Jlencies
Numerous thefts and bur? glaries
Check-writing; robbery
Eight drunk sentences; battery; robbery
None
'Molesting' children;
at tempted rape (child)
Drunk- and-disorderly; several Army AllOL' s
Numerous drunk and (hom? sexual) "soliciting" sentences; others
Fraud; statutory rape (girl 13); 'failure to
provide"; ? molesting? own children
several thefts: to boy necessities for mother
None
Check-wtiting while drunk
Typical self-characterizations
Robbed 'as a business? ; 'I always get married spectacularly. ?
Was ? a good boy? ; "hard-working? ? ? ?
self-made? ? ? business-success. "
"I like to fight"; "I'm a little wild. "
One of the 'poor people? . whom "the Greeks like to punish,?
Was ? a good boy"; ? a follower"; "framed by the people in politics. ?
"Everything I do is an act ? ; ? my industriousness just doesn't exist? ; ? only one help I've got? ? ? my father. "
"Men irritate . me. . . by? ? ? a superior attitude"; "I've got to have a . God"; "my ! ather haunts me. ?
"Money is the main object? , "you don' t think I'm a sex maniac, do you? '
"The only happiness we reallY know of
is . . . here on earth"; "I look on God as mostly the goodness in all peoples. "
"Helping others all my life. it seems'; "beset by all sorts of emotional problems. ?
"I never did like to argue? ; 'when we were separated, I got a little wild, ?
Doing an ? autopsychoanalysis" of own "Oedipus COII! Plex? to improve social ad ustment.
CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS 821
CThis column gives the full-scale I. Q. score obtained on a Wechsler-Bellevue test administered by an inmate working in the prison psychiatric department.
? 822 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
could to dissociate himself from prison authority. Some of the interviews suffered, like the questionnaire sessions, from external noise and interruptions. But except for one interview (with Wilbur, a high scorer), which for lack of space had to be conducted in an office where another person was work- ing, it is believed that these factors did not seriously interfere with rapport or with smooth conduct of the interview (as compared with interviews held in freer circumstances).
3. PLAN OF DISCUSSION
As elsewhere in the book, the general order of presentation is from sur- ? face attitudes to successively deeper dynamic factors. The bulk of the dis- cussion is concerned with interview material, although in each section relevant questionnaire statistics are given. The concepts developed earlier in the book, especially in Chapters IX-XIII, are here applied systematically to a group of key importance for understanding fascism, namely criminals. 7 The more adequate interviews obtained for this group permit detailed exemplifica- tion of differentiating variables, combined with case studies of individuals who are followed as such throughout the chapter. An attempt is made to indicate in what respects the inmates are similar to other groups studied, and also what features seem to distinguish them. To help keep the interviewees in mind as individuals, Table I (XXI), which summarizes a few salient facts about each one, is presented.
One notable way in which the prison group is distinguished is the fact that some of the high scorers express openly fascistic attitudes. Three of the high-scoring interviewees differ sufficiently from the others in this respect to warrant special consideration. For each general topic, therefore, the inter- viewees are discussed in three groups: pseudodemocratic high scorers, fascists, and low scorers. For variables in which there is no notable difference be- tween the two kinds of high scorers, some quotations from the fascists are often included under discussion of the pseudodemocratic high scorers. The distinction between these two differently organized types of mentality among the interviewees emerged empirically; it is developed inductively as various aspects of the fascist syndrome are taken up in successive sections of the chapter. The term fascist (as distinguished from pseudodemocratic, potential fascist) is used here to characterize anyone who expresses open hostility toward minority groups and endorses the use of force where "necessary" to suppress such groups; and who explicitly favors a "strong" government to protect business power against demands of labor unions and progressive political groups-even to the point of suppressing them by force.
7 The twelve interviewees considered in this chapter were a part of the total sample which formed the basis for the quantitative analysis presented in Chapters IX-XIII. This fact no doubt accounts in part, but only in part, for the similarity of the clinical results to be reported here and those which emerged from the analysis of our clinical material taken as a whole.
? Item
5. (Zootsuiters)
10. (Negro rights)
15. (Foreign ideas)
20. (Negro foremen)
24. (Jewish businessmen) 28. (Marry a Jew)
32. (Negroes live)
36. (Jews alike)
40. (Jewish neighborhood) 45. (World organization)
Mean/Person Mean/Person
6. 17 3. 22 6. 86 2. 70 5. 90 3. 11 6. 79 2. 78 5. 69 2. 63 5. 07 1. 30 5. 72 1. 67 6. 52 2. 70 6. 03 1. 78 6. 59 5. 93
61. 34 27. 82 6. 13 :? . 78
5. 5-7. 0 1. 6-3. 6
Mean/Person
2. 95 5. 18 4. 16 5. 26 2. 79 4. 78 4. 01 5. 16 3. 06 4. 06 3. 77 3. 20 4. 05 3. 49 3. 82 4. 63 4. 25 3. 92 0. 66 6. 38
33. 52 46. 06 3. 35 4. 61
1. 6-7. 0
Total mean/person Mean/person item Range
Standard Deviation: Reliability: . 65
1. 28
CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS
B. ETHNOCENTRISM
1. GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE STATISTICS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
A statistical summary of E-scale results for the prison group is presented in Table 2 (XXI). The prison inmates obtained a higher group mean on the
TABLE 2 (XXI)
RESULTS ON THE E SCALE FROM THE GROUP OF PRISON INMATES
High Quartile Low Quartile D. P. OVer-all
E scale (45)-4. 6 per item-than did any other group tested. 8 Although there are a number of extreme high scorers, there are no extreme low scorers,9 and the low end of the frequency distribution is truncated. This truncation produces the lowest Standard Deviation for theE scale (Fonn 45) distribu- tion found in any group studied. 10 In terms of E-scale item means, the bulk of the differences between the inmates and other groups is accounted for by the inmates' high means on non-Jewish items-a result to be discussed later.
These gross findings point immediately to an important conclusion. The general run of criminals are not to be thought of as genuine rebels who act according to some principle, however dissident, and whose conflict with au- thority is accompanied by some consideration for the weak or oppressed.
s See Table r7(1V).
9 The four lowest scores, in terms of mean per item, are r. 6, r. 8, r. 9, and z. o. 10 See Table r70V).
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
On the contrary, they would appear to be full of hate and fear toward under- dogs. Themselves disfranchised, prisoners and social outcasts, a kind of ulti- mate outgroup, they are yet unable to identify with other outgroups. This is in accordance with the common observation that most inmates do not iden- tify with other inmates, but make moralistic distinctions between themselves and "ordinary criminals. " The predominant tendency is for each inmate to be "an island, entire in itself. " One of the high-scoring interviewees, Eu- gene, expressed this isolationism succinctly in his general attitude to the "race problem": "I'm strictly for havin' all of 'em segregated. "
A second general result is that the (Form 45) E-scale reliability of . 65 is somewhat lower than that for other groups. 11 This can probably be attributed in part to misunderstanding of items and incorrect recording of responses, related to inadequate education and to environmental distractions. More of the reduction, however, is probably traceable to two statistical characteristics of the group results. One is the relative truncation of the lower end of the distribution. It is well known that cutting off either extreme portion of a bivariate distribution (including, of course, a split-half reliability distribution) tends to reduce the correlation. Secondly, the particular split of E-scale items used in computing reliability is such that one of the halves-the A items- includes precisely the five items on which the prison group means are most distinctively higher than those for other groups. The A set, moreover, in- cludes the three items with the poorest D. P. 's (see Table 2 (XXI)). With these "handicaps," a reliability coefficient as high as .
65 would seem to be all that could be expected (see Chapter IV).
The pattern of E-scale item means for the group is interesting (see Table 2 (XXI)). A very high mean was obtained on Item 45, which states that Amer- ica must maintain complete independence in any world organization. Al- though this proposition always yields a high mean, the unusually high value for the inmates suggests that low scorers in prison may submit almost as much as high scorers to sufficiently strong nationalistic propaganda. This item would appear to lend itself particularly well to projection of the most severely frustrated strivings of prison inmates-their need to be free of re- straint. Aside from this statement opposing world organization, the three items with the highest means (numbers 5, 1o, and 20) have one thing in common: each expresses strong status anxiety with respect to outgroups per- ceived as submerged, namely "zootsuiters" or Negroes. The significance of this feature is indicated in the following discussion of interview material on Negroes (the only truly submerged outgroup specifically inquired about).
2. IDEOLOGY CONCERNING NEGROES: A SUBMERGED OUTGROUP
a. HIGH ScoRERS. The content of anti-Negro ideology seems to be related to the fact that Negroes are almost universally perceived as a very submerged
n See Table 17(IV).
? CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS
outgroup-as contrasted with an imagined "dominant" outgroup such as Jews are thought to be. In the interviews, the principal traits ascribed to Negroes by high scorers are uninhibited sexuality, "laziness," "dirtiness," crude aggression, asocial acquisitiveness (petty thievery), pathological (in- fantile) lying, and exhibitionism. In a word, Negroes are held to be char- acterized by "untamed instincts," which keep them "primitive" and "child- ish. " This imagery is partly expressed in questionnaire Item p: Negroes are "lazy, ignorant, and without self-control. "
The most conventional of the prejudiced interviewees, Robert, summarizes this idea in general terms: "They have more of a primitive nature . . . just want to exist as the cannibal type of man. " The fascists tend to be more picturesque: "They're very closely linked with the jungle. They're built for it" (Floyd). Or, Negroes "originated from the apes" (Buck), and are "still half-African savage, no matter how dressed up they get" (Adrian)P
Implicit in these statements is the hereditarianism that pervades so much of potentially fascist thinking.
One of the most persistent preoccupations of the prejudiced interviewees has to do with the allegedly unsocialized sexuality of Negroes:
"There is more animalism in them. . . . (Animalism? ) Well, a bitch dog runs down the street and five dogs jump on top of her. . . . Like the Latin race, they're hot-blooded" (Ronald). One of the fascists, though less graphic, seems more bitter: Negroes are "bestial, like animals. Wonder they don't have seasons for their heat" (Floyd). Another fascist affirms that Negroes are "very prolific" (Adrian).
More specific anxiety is expressed about sexual approach to "white women" by Negroes:
"One thing I can't stand is to see a white girl with a nigger" (Ronald). "In here, when they have shows, the colored boys holler out about white women on the screen, 'Oh, what a babe! ' . . . That don't set right with me" (Eugene). "Under no circumstances," of course, should any member of "the white race . . . marry into the colored race" (Clarence). "Don't think a white person should marry one"
(Wilbur).
The other traits stressed vary in specific content. They have in common some reference to asocial instincts, and to Negroes' alleged failure to develop superego restraints and ego-ideal drives. Thus Robert, who has struggled so hard to "make good" in business, is much concerned over the "laziness" of Negroes: "I don't think they try to satisfy their ego. " Then, pulling back-apparently because this phrasing touches a conflict between Robert's own drive to get "up there" and his need to mask this power-seek- ing behind a pretense of "service"-he qualifies: "Not their ego, but their
12 Throughout the chapter, more than one quotation is generally given to illustrate each point. This is done not merely to multiply illustrations but because each interviewee is followed as an individual case study, on which some material is presented in each section.
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
fellow man. . . . They don't have a goal in life. " It is Robert also who ex- presses distaste for Negroes' alleged failure to conform to cultural ideals of cleanliness: "They don't wash themselves as cleanly. " Other characteristics assigned include the following:
Asocial acquisitiveness: "The majority of them have sticky fingers. They can't let things alone" (Clarence). Aggressiveness: Negroes are "troublesome," always starting trouble. . . . They get smart, start a lot of fights. . . . They always try to cause so much trouble-fight, trying to be big shots" (Eugene, who admits to a long record of getting in petty "trouble," especially "fighting" when drunk). Patho- logical lying: "You can't depend on him. . . . He'll lie to you every chance he gets" (Buck, one of the fascists, whose protocol was discovered on checking with his social history chart to be filled with boastful lies on a grand scale). Being over- verbal and grossly exhibitionistic: "Chatter like a bunch of apes when you get three or four in a crowd. Strut around like peacocks. . . . Take a look at their clothes" (Floyd, another fascist, who speaks in abrupt, blurted sentences and might be called "underverbal," is exceptionally vain and preoccupied with his appearance, and even admits that, "Everything I do is an act").
The prejudiced interviewees' attitudes toward Negroes, as distinguished from their stereotypes of what Negroes are like, betray intense status anxiety -a fear lest "the black" rise up and challenge the right of "the white" to suppress him. Negroes must constantly be kept "in their place," i. e. , sub- merged, in order to save the high scorers from feeling severe anxiety. This status fear appears both in invidious comparisons of Negroes vs. whites, and in direct insistence upon Jim Crow policies. The following expressions are typical:
"I don't believe in associating with them. I believe they should have their own schools. I don't believe we should have to eat with them" (Clarence). "I figure they're black and I'm white. . . . I won't work with them. . . . Let them stay in their place" (Eugene). Negroes "should stay in their place . . . not mix with whites" (Wilbur). Robert wants to be "tolerant" by reducing discrimination in employment and living standards, but "by that I don't mean that we should inter- mingle"; "there should be a separate section of town" for Negroes; and we "ought to do away with public office-holding" by Negroes.
Ronald complains: "The hardest thing for me to stomach is (Southern Negroes coming North) and taking advantage of opportunities. . . . They try to get themselves into a spot, not because they want it but just to annoy other people. " He goes on to describe an incident in the Negro section of a midwestern city, in which he forced a Negro to move from the "spot" next to him on a street car, was arrested by a Negro policeman, and subsequently fined. He expresses resentment against "the overbearing attitude they get when the odds are all in their favor. "
Ronald's bitterness toward the "overbearing attitude" of Negroes also illustrates another feature commonly found in prejudiced subjects: an inabil-
? CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS
ity to conceive of genuine equality. This anxiety-laden blind spot leads to some curious distortions by the prejudiced interviewees:
"(Negroes) feel themselves better than the white person" (Clarence). "They think they're better than we are" (Eugene). More fully elaborated: "When white people give them a little rope, they just think they are a little better than whites . . . take a bit too far advantage if you give them a chance" (Wilbur).
Despite the highly antidemocratic attitudes outlined above, 5 of the high-scoring interviewees present the type of pseudodemocratic fac;ade de- scribed in Chapters III and XVII. To convince themselves and others that they conform to the democratic values of "The American Creed," they try to disguise or deny their authoritarian hostility. They show reluctance to approve openly that violence against Negroes to which their inner anxieties predispose them.
"They're human, just as we are. . . . I don't believe we should hold racial hate" (Clarence). "There's a few good ones (who) go out of their way not to cause
trouble" (Eugene).
Robert would even like to equalize some opportunities for Negroes-up to a certain point-so that they may be encouraged to suppress passive wishes and acquire a "goal in life. " It is as if Negroes symbolize for Robert his own suppressed desires to be more passive and pleasure-seeking, desires that he feels compelled to inhibit so as to drive himself to "get up there" and prove his masculinity. Even Ronald admits "there are a few good ones"; and when asked what might have to be done if Negroes continue to demand more equality, he wistfully restrains his vigilante impulses: "It isn't so much what will have to be done as that nothing will be done under our democratic system. " When pushed further, he sums up an attitude implicit in many of the quotations so far-the high scorers' ultimate pessimism as to any real solution of group tensions: "Well, there's a problem I don't think will ever be solved. "
Wilbur, however, shows a kind of transition stage between pseudodemo- cratic fac;ade and open fascist readiness to abandon pretense of democracy. On the one hand he insists, "I have nothing against them if they stay in their place. " But if Negroes organize to demand equal rights, "plenty would have to be done . . . battle just like with the Japs. " Underdogs' demands for equality seem to arouse in Wilbur a persecutory fear of being overwhelmed, so that he feels driven to "fight back" in paranoid desperation.
b. FASCISTS. The three fascist high scorers, Adrian, Buck, and Floyd, reveal essentially the same kinds of anti-Negro stereotypes, with even more intense status-anxiety. In addition, they show two interrelated characteristics that are more openly antidemocratic: undisguised hate combined with explicit readiness to suppress the outgroup by physical force "if necessary. "
? THE AUTHORITARIAN PERSONALITY
Buck rages: "Goddam nigger, he's no good at all. . . . I don't want any near me. . . . They ought to be kept in their place. Shouldn't let 'em come over here in the first goddam place! . . . Floyd is even more virulent: "Ignorant ! . . . What ought to be done, but won't be done, is to ship 'em back to Haiti or to Liberia. (What may happen if they continue to encroach on white men? ) There'll be bloodshed if it keeps up! "
Adrian's protective pattern of submissiveness prevents this blustering type of expression of his tremendous hate. But he leaves no doubt as to his approval of violent fascist suppressions: Negroes "keep their place and that's that. (What if the Negro doesn't keep his place? ) He does keep his place. (But if not? ) They learn their place. " Further probing elicits the assertion that if Negroes should insist on seeking political representation, there would have to be "another civil war" to suppress them. Adrian makes clear the symbolic equivalence for him of Negroes and other submerged groups: (Should Negroes work in the same factory with whites? ) "Yes, because if they're working in a factory with whites, they're poor whites anyway. "
c. Low ScoRERS. Despite the unusually high means obtained by the prison group on the three items expressing status-anxiety toward submerged groups, these items have fairly low means for the low quartile and therefore have quite high Discriminatory Powers (Table 2 (XXI)). This indicates the relative freedom of most low scorers from strong anti-Negro prejudice. Of the 4 low-scoring interviewees, however, none were found to be entirely free of prejudice against Negroes. But their attitudes are distinguished from those of the high scorers in several ways.
In the first place, they are much less hostile and far less rigid in such preju- dice as they do disclose. In particular, they exhibit less status-anxiety toward Negroes. Three of them emphasize that "there should be no discrimination in jobs"; the other, Jim, expresses guilt feelings over his present prejudice on this issue (see below). On the basis of an individualized attitude toward people, these men tend to be more willing to accept Negroes as friends and equals. Thus Don, who was brought up in a Southern state, declares that he chooses friends "mostly on the basis of the individual, not the race. " Dick, raised in another Southern state, describes two Negro doctors whom he en- joys "talking to. " He hesitates "as far as having close friends goes," but de- cides that "that would be all right, too, if they had the same education I had. " (Art's and Jim's views on this matter will be indicated in ensuing paragraphs. ) All four protocols, however, contain evidence of some barriers against com- plete freedom of social relations with Negroes. The clearest barrier, sub- scribed to in some degree by all four, is that they "don't believe in intermar- riage. " But even here these men are more relaxed and flexible than the high-scoring inmates. They typically ascribe to external social pressure the main basis of their own social distance in this respect:
? CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS
This barrier is a custom "bro~ghtdown from years and years in history" (Dick). "I am thinking mostly of the children" who might he "socially ostracized" (Don). "It isn't socially accepted" (Art). The barrier is not regarded as rigid and eternal: "If I'd been raised in New York City (instead of in the South), I might have felt different" (Dick). In countries where intermarriage is generally accepted, it is "okay-not myself, perhaps; but I certainly wouldn't want to be dogmatic about it" (Don). (How would you feel about intermarriage if it were generally accepted socially? ) "I don't know. It isn't now. . .
115
86
Pre-Prison Occupation
COOk
Grocery manager
PllJIIber
Truck driver
Farmer; soldier? pensioner
Irregular odd jobs
Homsexual pros? titute; occa- sional clerk
TABLE 1 (XXI)
IDENTIFYING DATA FUR INTERVIEWEES IN '111E PRISON INMATES GROUP
a As o f
bThese ratings are estimates by the examiner, using Lloyd Warner? s categories: "Upper
November,
Upper, ? "Lower Upper, ? "Upper Middle, ? "Lower Middle, ? "Upper Lower, ? "Lower Lower. ?
1945.
KEY FOR CONNECTING NAMES GIVEN TO INTERVIEWEES IN THIS CHAPTER WITH NUMBERS USED IN PART IV:
Ronald: M651A Clarence: M664B J i m : M619
Robert: M656A Floyd: M658 Don: M620
Eugene: M662A Wilbur: M662B Adrian: M661A Buck: M664C
3 94
11 125
14 122
83
11 117
12 123
12 112
14 130
"Cattleman?
Messenger;
clerk
Salesman
Clerk
C011111ercial
a r t i s t
D i c k : M621A
A r t : M621B
? Present Offense
Murder during gang robbery
Killed mistress in quarrel
Check-writing
Killed landlord in knife fight
Attempted rape (girl 12)
Gang robberies
Robbery '111th cap pistol
Check-writing while drunk
While drunk, clubbed elderly 110man to death
Benk robberies (alone): to PlliY mother? s debts
Stole auto while drunk
Check-writlng while drunk
Previous Delin<Jlencies
Numerous thefts and bur? glaries
Check-writing; robbery
Eight drunk sentences; battery; robbery
None
'Molesting' children;
at tempted rape (child)
Drunk- and-disorderly; several Army AllOL' s
Numerous drunk and (hom? sexual) "soliciting" sentences; others
Fraud; statutory rape (girl 13); 'failure to
provide"; ? molesting? own children
several thefts: to boy necessities for mother
None
Check-wtiting while drunk
Typical self-characterizations
Robbed 'as a business? ; 'I always get married spectacularly. ?
Was ? a good boy? ; "hard-working? ? ? ?
self-made? ? ? business-success. "
"I like to fight"; "I'm a little wild. "
One of the 'poor people? . whom "the Greeks like to punish,?
Was ? a good boy"; ? a follower"; "framed by the people in politics. ?
"Everything I do is an act ? ; ? my industriousness just doesn't exist? ; ? only one help I've got? ? ? my father. "
"Men irritate . me. . . by? ? ? a superior attitude"; "I've got to have a . God"; "my ! ather haunts me. ?
"Money is the main object? , "you don' t think I'm a sex maniac, do you? '
"The only happiness we reallY know of
is . . . here on earth"; "I look on God as mostly the goodness in all peoples. "
"Helping others all my life. it seems'; "beset by all sorts of emotional problems. ?
"I never did like to argue? ; 'when we were separated, I got a little wild, ?
Doing an ? autopsychoanalysis" of own "Oedipus COII! Plex? to improve social ad ustment.
CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS 821
CThis column gives the full-scale I. Q. score obtained on a Wechsler-Bellevue test administered by an inmate working in the prison psychiatric department.
? 822 THE AUTHORIT ARIAN PERSONALITY
could to dissociate himself from prison authority. Some of the interviews suffered, like the questionnaire sessions, from external noise and interruptions. But except for one interview (with Wilbur, a high scorer), which for lack of space had to be conducted in an office where another person was work- ing, it is believed that these factors did not seriously interfere with rapport or with smooth conduct of the interview (as compared with interviews held in freer circumstances).
3. PLAN OF DISCUSSION
As elsewhere in the book, the general order of presentation is from sur- ? face attitudes to successively deeper dynamic factors. The bulk of the dis- cussion is concerned with interview material, although in each section relevant questionnaire statistics are given. The concepts developed earlier in the book, especially in Chapters IX-XIII, are here applied systematically to a group of key importance for understanding fascism, namely criminals. 7 The more adequate interviews obtained for this group permit detailed exemplifica- tion of differentiating variables, combined with case studies of individuals who are followed as such throughout the chapter. An attempt is made to indicate in what respects the inmates are similar to other groups studied, and also what features seem to distinguish them. To help keep the interviewees in mind as individuals, Table I (XXI), which summarizes a few salient facts about each one, is presented.
One notable way in which the prison group is distinguished is the fact that some of the high scorers express openly fascistic attitudes. Three of the high-scoring interviewees differ sufficiently from the others in this respect to warrant special consideration. For each general topic, therefore, the inter- viewees are discussed in three groups: pseudodemocratic high scorers, fascists, and low scorers. For variables in which there is no notable difference be- tween the two kinds of high scorers, some quotations from the fascists are often included under discussion of the pseudodemocratic high scorers. The distinction between these two differently organized types of mentality among the interviewees emerged empirically; it is developed inductively as various aspects of the fascist syndrome are taken up in successive sections of the chapter. The term fascist (as distinguished from pseudodemocratic, potential fascist) is used here to characterize anyone who expresses open hostility toward minority groups and endorses the use of force where "necessary" to suppress such groups; and who explicitly favors a "strong" government to protect business power against demands of labor unions and progressive political groups-even to the point of suppressing them by force.
7 The twelve interviewees considered in this chapter were a part of the total sample which formed the basis for the quantitative analysis presented in Chapters IX-XIII. This fact no doubt accounts in part, but only in part, for the similarity of the clinical results to be reported here and those which emerged from the analysis of our clinical material taken as a whole.
? Item
5. (Zootsuiters)
10. (Negro rights)
15. (Foreign ideas)
20. (Negro foremen)
24. (Jewish businessmen) 28. (Marry a Jew)
32. (Negroes live)
36. (Jews alike)
40. (Jewish neighborhood) 45. (World organization)
Mean/Person Mean/Person
6. 17 3. 22 6. 86 2. 70 5. 90 3. 11 6. 79 2. 78 5. 69 2. 63 5. 07 1. 30 5. 72 1. 67 6. 52 2. 70 6. 03 1. 78 6. 59 5. 93
61. 34 27. 82 6. 13 :? . 78
5. 5-7. 0 1. 6-3. 6
Mean/Person
2. 95 5. 18 4. 16 5. 26 2. 79 4. 78 4. 01 5. 16 3. 06 4. 06 3. 77 3. 20 4. 05 3. 49 3. 82 4. 63 4. 25 3. 92 0. 66 6. 38
33. 52 46. 06 3. 35 4. 61
1. 6-7. 0
Total mean/person Mean/person item Range
Standard Deviation: Reliability: . 65
1. 28
CRIMINALITY AND ANTIDEMOCRA TIC TRENDS
B. ETHNOCENTRISM
1. GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE STATISTICS AND THEIR SIGNIFICANCE
A statistical summary of E-scale results for the prison group is presented in Table 2 (XXI). The prison inmates obtained a higher group mean on the
TABLE 2 (XXI)
RESULTS ON THE E SCALE FROM THE GROUP OF PRISON INMATES
High Quartile Low Quartile D. P. OVer-all
E scale (45)-4. 6 per item-than did any other group tested. 8 Although there are a number of extreme high scorers, there are no extreme low scorers,9 and the low end of the frequency distribution is truncated. This truncation produces the lowest Standard Deviation for theE scale (Fonn 45) distribu- tion found in any group studied. 10 In terms of E-scale item means, the bulk of the differences between the inmates and other groups is accounted for by the inmates' high means on non-Jewish items-a result to be discussed later.
These gross findings point immediately to an important conclusion. The general run of criminals are not to be thought of as genuine rebels who act according to some principle, however dissident, and whose conflict with au- thority is accompanied by some consideration for the weak or oppressed.
s See Table r7(1V).
9 The four lowest scores, in terms of mean per item, are r. 6, r. 8, r. 9, and z. o. 10 See Table r70V).
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On the contrary, they would appear to be full of hate and fear toward under- dogs. Themselves disfranchised, prisoners and social outcasts, a kind of ulti- mate outgroup, they are yet unable to identify with other outgroups. This is in accordance with the common observation that most inmates do not iden- tify with other inmates, but make moralistic distinctions between themselves and "ordinary criminals. " The predominant tendency is for each inmate to be "an island, entire in itself. " One of the high-scoring interviewees, Eu- gene, expressed this isolationism succinctly in his general attitude to the "race problem": "I'm strictly for havin' all of 'em segregated. "
A second general result is that the (Form 45) E-scale reliability of . 65 is somewhat lower than that for other groups. 11 This can probably be attributed in part to misunderstanding of items and incorrect recording of responses, related to inadequate education and to environmental distractions. More of the reduction, however, is probably traceable to two statistical characteristics of the group results. One is the relative truncation of the lower end of the distribution. It is well known that cutting off either extreme portion of a bivariate distribution (including, of course, a split-half reliability distribution) tends to reduce the correlation. Secondly, the particular split of E-scale items used in computing reliability is such that one of the halves-the A items- includes precisely the five items on which the prison group means are most distinctively higher than those for other groups. The A set, moreover, in- cludes the three items with the poorest D. P. 's (see Table 2 (XXI)). With these "handicaps," a reliability coefficient as high as .
65 would seem to be all that could be expected (see Chapter IV).
The pattern of E-scale item means for the group is interesting (see Table 2 (XXI)). A very high mean was obtained on Item 45, which states that Amer- ica must maintain complete independence in any world organization. Al- though this proposition always yields a high mean, the unusually high value for the inmates suggests that low scorers in prison may submit almost as much as high scorers to sufficiently strong nationalistic propaganda. This item would appear to lend itself particularly well to projection of the most severely frustrated strivings of prison inmates-their need to be free of re- straint. Aside from this statement opposing world organization, the three items with the highest means (numbers 5, 1o, and 20) have one thing in common: each expresses strong status anxiety with respect to outgroups per- ceived as submerged, namely "zootsuiters" or Negroes. The significance of this feature is indicated in the following discussion of interview material on Negroes (the only truly submerged outgroup specifically inquired about).
2. IDEOLOGY CONCERNING NEGROES: A SUBMERGED OUTGROUP
a. HIGH ScoRERS. The content of anti-Negro ideology seems to be related to the fact that Negroes are almost universally perceived as a very submerged
n See Table 17(IV).
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outgroup-as contrasted with an imagined "dominant" outgroup such as Jews are thought to be. In the interviews, the principal traits ascribed to Negroes by high scorers are uninhibited sexuality, "laziness," "dirtiness," crude aggression, asocial acquisitiveness (petty thievery), pathological (in- fantile) lying, and exhibitionism. In a word, Negroes are held to be char- acterized by "untamed instincts," which keep them "primitive" and "child- ish. " This imagery is partly expressed in questionnaire Item p: Negroes are "lazy, ignorant, and without self-control. "
The most conventional of the prejudiced interviewees, Robert, summarizes this idea in general terms: "They have more of a primitive nature . . . just want to exist as the cannibal type of man. " The fascists tend to be more picturesque: "They're very closely linked with the jungle. They're built for it" (Floyd). Or, Negroes "originated from the apes" (Buck), and are "still half-African savage, no matter how dressed up they get" (Adrian)P
Implicit in these statements is the hereditarianism that pervades so much of potentially fascist thinking.
One of the most persistent preoccupations of the prejudiced interviewees has to do with the allegedly unsocialized sexuality of Negroes:
"There is more animalism in them. . . . (Animalism? ) Well, a bitch dog runs down the street and five dogs jump on top of her. . . . Like the Latin race, they're hot-blooded" (Ronald). One of the fascists, though less graphic, seems more bitter: Negroes are "bestial, like animals. Wonder they don't have seasons for their heat" (Floyd). Another fascist affirms that Negroes are "very prolific" (Adrian).
More specific anxiety is expressed about sexual approach to "white women" by Negroes:
"One thing I can't stand is to see a white girl with a nigger" (Ronald). "In here, when they have shows, the colored boys holler out about white women on the screen, 'Oh, what a babe! ' . . . That don't set right with me" (Eugene). "Under no circumstances," of course, should any member of "the white race . . . marry into the colored race" (Clarence). "Don't think a white person should marry one"
(Wilbur).
The other traits stressed vary in specific content. They have in common some reference to asocial instincts, and to Negroes' alleged failure to develop superego restraints and ego-ideal drives. Thus Robert, who has struggled so hard to "make good" in business, is much concerned over the "laziness" of Negroes: "I don't think they try to satisfy their ego. " Then, pulling back-apparently because this phrasing touches a conflict between Robert's own drive to get "up there" and his need to mask this power-seek- ing behind a pretense of "service"-he qualifies: "Not their ego, but their
12 Throughout the chapter, more than one quotation is generally given to illustrate each point. This is done not merely to multiply illustrations but because each interviewee is followed as an individual case study, on which some material is presented in each section.
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fellow man. . . . They don't have a goal in life. " It is Robert also who ex- presses distaste for Negroes' alleged failure to conform to cultural ideals of cleanliness: "They don't wash themselves as cleanly. " Other characteristics assigned include the following:
Asocial acquisitiveness: "The majority of them have sticky fingers. They can't let things alone" (Clarence). Aggressiveness: Negroes are "troublesome," always starting trouble. . . . They get smart, start a lot of fights. . . . They always try to cause so much trouble-fight, trying to be big shots" (Eugene, who admits to a long record of getting in petty "trouble," especially "fighting" when drunk). Patho- logical lying: "You can't depend on him. . . . He'll lie to you every chance he gets" (Buck, one of the fascists, whose protocol was discovered on checking with his social history chart to be filled with boastful lies on a grand scale). Being over- verbal and grossly exhibitionistic: "Chatter like a bunch of apes when you get three or four in a crowd. Strut around like peacocks. . . . Take a look at their clothes" (Floyd, another fascist, who speaks in abrupt, blurted sentences and might be called "underverbal," is exceptionally vain and preoccupied with his appearance, and even admits that, "Everything I do is an act").
The prejudiced interviewees' attitudes toward Negroes, as distinguished from their stereotypes of what Negroes are like, betray intense status anxiety -a fear lest "the black" rise up and challenge the right of "the white" to suppress him. Negroes must constantly be kept "in their place," i. e. , sub- merged, in order to save the high scorers from feeling severe anxiety. This status fear appears both in invidious comparisons of Negroes vs. whites, and in direct insistence upon Jim Crow policies. The following expressions are typical:
"I don't believe in associating with them. I believe they should have their own schools. I don't believe we should have to eat with them" (Clarence). "I figure they're black and I'm white. . . . I won't work with them. . . . Let them stay in their place" (Eugene). Negroes "should stay in their place . . . not mix with whites" (Wilbur). Robert wants to be "tolerant" by reducing discrimination in employment and living standards, but "by that I don't mean that we should inter- mingle"; "there should be a separate section of town" for Negroes; and we "ought to do away with public office-holding" by Negroes.
Ronald complains: "The hardest thing for me to stomach is (Southern Negroes coming North) and taking advantage of opportunities. . . . They try to get themselves into a spot, not because they want it but just to annoy other people. " He goes on to describe an incident in the Negro section of a midwestern city, in which he forced a Negro to move from the "spot" next to him on a street car, was arrested by a Negro policeman, and subsequently fined. He expresses resentment against "the overbearing attitude they get when the odds are all in their favor. "
Ronald's bitterness toward the "overbearing attitude" of Negroes also illustrates another feature commonly found in prejudiced subjects: an inabil-
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ity to conceive of genuine equality. This anxiety-laden blind spot leads to some curious distortions by the prejudiced interviewees:
"(Negroes) feel themselves better than the white person" (Clarence). "They think they're better than we are" (Eugene). More fully elaborated: "When white people give them a little rope, they just think they are a little better than whites . . . take a bit too far advantage if you give them a chance" (Wilbur).
Despite the highly antidemocratic attitudes outlined above, 5 of the high-scoring interviewees present the type of pseudodemocratic fac;ade de- scribed in Chapters III and XVII. To convince themselves and others that they conform to the democratic values of "The American Creed," they try to disguise or deny their authoritarian hostility. They show reluctance to approve openly that violence against Negroes to which their inner anxieties predispose them.
"They're human, just as we are. . . . I don't believe we should hold racial hate" (Clarence). "There's a few good ones (who) go out of their way not to cause
trouble" (Eugene).
Robert would even like to equalize some opportunities for Negroes-up to a certain point-so that they may be encouraged to suppress passive wishes and acquire a "goal in life. " It is as if Negroes symbolize for Robert his own suppressed desires to be more passive and pleasure-seeking, desires that he feels compelled to inhibit so as to drive himself to "get up there" and prove his masculinity. Even Ronald admits "there are a few good ones"; and when asked what might have to be done if Negroes continue to demand more equality, he wistfully restrains his vigilante impulses: "It isn't so much what will have to be done as that nothing will be done under our democratic system. " When pushed further, he sums up an attitude implicit in many of the quotations so far-the high scorers' ultimate pessimism as to any real solution of group tensions: "Well, there's a problem I don't think will ever be solved. "
Wilbur, however, shows a kind of transition stage between pseudodemo- cratic fac;ade and open fascist readiness to abandon pretense of democracy. On the one hand he insists, "I have nothing against them if they stay in their place. " But if Negroes organize to demand equal rights, "plenty would have to be done . . . battle just like with the Japs. " Underdogs' demands for equality seem to arouse in Wilbur a persecutory fear of being overwhelmed, so that he feels driven to "fight back" in paranoid desperation.
b. FASCISTS. The three fascist high scorers, Adrian, Buck, and Floyd, reveal essentially the same kinds of anti-Negro stereotypes, with even more intense status-anxiety. In addition, they show two interrelated characteristics that are more openly antidemocratic: undisguised hate combined with explicit readiness to suppress the outgroup by physical force "if necessary. "
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Buck rages: "Goddam nigger, he's no good at all. . . . I don't want any near me. . . . They ought to be kept in their place. Shouldn't let 'em come over here in the first goddam place! . . . Floyd is even more virulent: "Ignorant ! . . . What ought to be done, but won't be done, is to ship 'em back to Haiti or to Liberia. (What may happen if they continue to encroach on white men? ) There'll be bloodshed if it keeps up! "
Adrian's protective pattern of submissiveness prevents this blustering type of expression of his tremendous hate. But he leaves no doubt as to his approval of violent fascist suppressions: Negroes "keep their place and that's that. (What if the Negro doesn't keep his place? ) He does keep his place. (But if not? ) They learn their place. " Further probing elicits the assertion that if Negroes should insist on seeking political representation, there would have to be "another civil war" to suppress them. Adrian makes clear the symbolic equivalence for him of Negroes and other submerged groups: (Should Negroes work in the same factory with whites? ) "Yes, because if they're working in a factory with whites, they're poor whites anyway. "
c. Low ScoRERS. Despite the unusually high means obtained by the prison group on the three items expressing status-anxiety toward submerged groups, these items have fairly low means for the low quartile and therefore have quite high Discriminatory Powers (Table 2 (XXI)). This indicates the relative freedom of most low scorers from strong anti-Negro prejudice. Of the 4 low-scoring interviewees, however, none were found to be entirely free of prejudice against Negroes. But their attitudes are distinguished from those of the high scorers in several ways.
In the first place, they are much less hostile and far less rigid in such preju- dice as they do disclose. In particular, they exhibit less status-anxiety toward Negroes. Three of them emphasize that "there should be no discrimination in jobs"; the other, Jim, expresses guilt feelings over his present prejudice on this issue (see below). On the basis of an individualized attitude toward people, these men tend to be more willing to accept Negroes as friends and equals. Thus Don, who was brought up in a Southern state, declares that he chooses friends "mostly on the basis of the individual, not the race. " Dick, raised in another Southern state, describes two Negro doctors whom he en- joys "talking to. " He hesitates "as far as having close friends goes," but de- cides that "that would be all right, too, if they had the same education I had. " (Art's and Jim's views on this matter will be indicated in ensuing paragraphs. ) All four protocols, however, contain evidence of some barriers against com- plete freedom of social relations with Negroes. The clearest barrier, sub- scribed to in some degree by all four, is that they "don't believe in intermar- riage. " But even here these men are more relaxed and flexible than the high-scoring inmates. They typically ascribe to external social pressure the main basis of their own social distance in this respect:
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This barrier is a custom "bro~ghtdown from years and years in history" (Dick). "I am thinking mostly of the children" who might he "socially ostracized" (Don). "It isn't socially accepted" (Art). The barrier is not regarded as rigid and eternal: "If I'd been raised in New York City (instead of in the South), I might have felt different" (Dick). In countries where intermarriage is generally accepted, it is "okay-not myself, perhaps; but I certainly wouldn't want to be dogmatic about it" (Don). (How would you feel about intermarriage if it were generally accepted socially? ) "I don't know. It isn't now. . .
