F and RWA Scale

Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford developed a character test in 1947. They wrote a book called "The Authoritarian Personality" and developed the "F scale" to test the existence of an autocratic character. The book was published in 1950. The letter F represents the word fascist. It is seen that some character traits begin to come to the fore as people subjected to the F scale get high scores: They are inspired by the book "Escape from Freedom" written by Erich Fromm in 1941. The aim is to see how close or far a personality is to fascism.

Adorno is actually a sociologist and philosopher affiliated with the Frankfurt School. He is known for his critical perspectives on social phenomena and society. The studies Adorno conducted with the people mentioned above are known as the "Berkeley Papers" because they all worked at the University of California/Berkeley during and after World War II. The source of inspiration for their work was the understanding of the conditions leading to World War II and how Hitler came to power in the atmosphere of those days.

Hitler closed down the "Institut für Sozialforschung", an institution where representatives of the Frankfurt School worked. Some of those working in this institution were forced to leave the country in order to continue their work.

The character analyzed in the book "The Authoritarian Personality" is based on Freud. Freud explains that children who come from harsh and punitive parents idolize authoritarian characters. The book is a combination of the contributions of the above-mentioned names from different psychological and sociological perspectives.

There is also a concept put forward by the same names: "right authoritarianism". People evaluated under this concept tend to lean towards and believe in traditionalist, strong, and determined characters who are committed to the basic norms and values of society. They are known for their attitudes that give importance to and support punitive approaches against segments of society that do not comply with their own norms.

On one side, an autocratic leader, on the other side, characters who give importance to autocracy. Analyses that test the leader with the F Scale also analyze those who choose the leader with the "RWA (Right-wing Authoritarianism)" scale.

Three main criteria stand out in the RWE scale:

Authoritarian submission: the willingness of an individual to submit to a legitimate leader who has strong social acceptance.

Authoritarian aggression: Feelings of violence towards those who object to the traditional side of society and deviate from the traditional structure.

Traditionalism: excessive devotion to the traditions and norms of society and the expectation and desire for all segments of society to adhere to these traditions and norms.

All of what I have written above are very brief and the most important points of scientific findings that I can present from my perspective. I am trying to approach the findings by considering the historical events and some geographies that underlie them.

When we consider the F scale for leaders and the RWA scale for society, it is not possible for the concepts of human rights and democracy to flourish or progress in social structures where both give high values. Such societies are extremely closed to progress and therefore very distant from a culture of questioning. It is not possible for a questioning culture to emerge from the characteristics described by the three criteria related to the RWA scale.

If you want a society to question, to protect its own rights and democracy, you need to focus on education. This leads to the question of what kind of education system should be created. With an educational approach that is kneaded with tradition, you create a society that takes you to high values on the RWA scale. Thus, depending on the education that the society receives, you can also make some comments about what kind of leaders are good for the society. What is suitable for which society and who can know this? Extremely complex issues!

Theodor W. Adorno, Else Frenkel-Brunswik, Daniel Levinson and Nevitt Sanford set out to understand how the devastated Germany of World War I had brought Hitler to power. The society we are talking about is a society that questions, that has produced giants in science, music, philosophy, physics and chemistry. On the other hand, a post-war society that found itself in the midst of millions of inflation, poverty and social misery. The result: Hitler's rise to power and World War II.

Knowing history and subjecting findings to scientific analysis is essential for setting the right goal.