Sam McFarland

On the Eve of War: Authoritarianism, Social Dominance, and American Students’ Attitudes Toward Attacking Iraq

In the week before the 2003 American attack on Iraq, the effects of authoritarianism and the social dominance orientation on support for the attack were examined. Based on prior research on the nature of these constructs, a structural model was developed and tested. As predicted, authoritarianism strengthened support for the attack by intensifying the perception that Iraq threatened America. Social dominance increased support by reducing concern for the likely human costs of the war. Both also increased blind patriotism, which in turn reduced concern for the war’s human costs and was reciprocally related to the belief that Iraq threatened America.

All humanity is my ingroup: a measure and studies of identification with all humanity.

To psychologists Adler (1927/1954) and Maslow (1954), fully mature individuals care deeply for all humanity, not just for their own ingroups. This paper reports a series of studies with a new measure of that caring, the Identification With All Humanity Scale (IWAH). These studies together show that identification with all humanity is more than an absence of ethnocentrism and its correlates and more than the presence of dispositional empathy, moral reasoning, moral identity, and the value of universalism. Across these studies, the IWAH predicted concern for global human rights and humanitarian needs (Studies 1 and 2), was temporally stable (Study 3), and correlated with how close others see one as being (Study 4). The IWAH strongly distinguished members of 2 known groups from a general adult sample (Study 5). It predicted valuing the lives of ingroup and outgroup members equally (Study 7), knowledge of global humanitarian concerns (Study 8) and choosing to learn about these concerns (Study 9), and a willingness to contribute to international humanitarian relief (Study 10). In regression analyses, it predicted these results beyond related constructs. Although psychologists have focused extensively upon negative qualities such as ethnocentrism and its roots, we suggest that the positive quality of identification with all humanity also merits extensive study.

Authoritarianism in the former Soviet Union

Two studies examined the relevance of the authoritarian personality in the Soviet Union. In a 1991 Moscow quota sample, authoritarianism strongly predicted support for reactionary leaders and military actions and opposition to democratic and non-Russian leaders and to democratic activities. The positive correlation between authoritarianism and support for Marxist-Leninist ideology was significant but lower than in 1989. Consistent with the theory that conventionalism is a central attribute of authoritarianism, Russian authoritarianism predicted support for equalitarianism and opposition to laissez-faire individualism, whereas in a comparison American sample these relationships were reversed. The lower Russian consistencies on scales measuring norms of justice are interpreted as differences in how Soviets and Americans relate abstract thought and values to particular policies and activities.

Russian Authoritarianism Two Years after Communism

A 1993 survey of Moscow adults explored the on going relevance of the authoritarian personality in Russia following the colapse of communism. Authoritarianism correlated positively with procommunist beliefs and negatively with support for capitalist and democratic reforms, but these relationships were weaker than in 1989 and 1991. Among those low in communist beliefs only, authoritarianism predicted increased religious faith. Russian, like American, authoritarianism predicted negative attitudes toward people with AIDS and environmentalists. However, Russian authoritarianism, opposite to American authoritarianism, provokes blaming society rather than the individual for homelessness and poverty. These results appear compatible with both authoritarianism theory and differing American-Russian conventional norms.

Identification With All Humanity as a Moral Concept and Psychological Construct

Studies of those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust suggest that their most shared quality was a sense “of belonging to one human family” (Monroe, 1996, p. 205), caring deeply about human beings without regard for their race, religion, or other distinction. In this article, we first note the development of the concept of “one humanity” since the late 15th century, and then we summarize recent work with a new measure of that caring—the Identification With All Humanity Scale (IWAH). Research with the IWAH establishes that identification with all humanity is more than (a) an absence of prejudice and its sources and (b) the sum of positive qualities, such as dispositional empathy and principled moral reasoning. Many people appear to intuit that a mature moral person would identify with all humanity, even when they do not do so themselves. Finally, a brief discussion is offered of how identification with all humanity may develop or could be taught.

The Authoritarian Personality in the United States and the Former Soviet Union: Comparative Studies

Until the spring of 1988, Soviet psychologists had almost no access to Western research on authoritarianism. Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, and Sanford’s (1950) classic, The Authoritarian Personality, was found only in special library preserves, and even specialists had great difficulty getting access to this work. Books on related constructs, such as Rokeach’s (1960) The Open and Closed Mind on dogmatism, were similarly restricted, at least in many areas of the former Soviet Union. While many Soviet psychologists knew these works existed, very few had the opportunity to read and evaluate them first hand.

Do Americans Care About Human Rights

Abstract National polls indicate strong American support for international human rights. However, that support consistently ranks below national self-interests, appears to be strongly influenced by current events, and wanes as the cost of supporting human rights increases. Although most Americans express agreement with the ideals of human rights, a willingness to commit American resources to promote and defend human rights is much weaker. Americans who are committed to human rights are likely to be “globalists” whose other concerns are international rather than nationalistic, high in principled moral reasoning, empathetic, and optimistic about creating a better world. They are low in ethnocentrism and its root dispositions of social dominance and authoritarianism. Greater education strengthens endorsement of human rights principles but does not appear to increase a willingness to commit US resources and troops to promote and defend human rights.

A Situation's First Powers Are Attracting Volunteers and Selecting Participants: A Reply to Haney and Zimbardo (2009)

This reply addresses three issues raised by C. Haney and P. G. Zimbardo (2009) in their critique of T. Carnahan and S. McFarland (2007). First, it clarifies Carnahan and McFarlands appreciation of the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE) but suggests that as a model for the power of situations, the SPE does not adequately consider self-selection and selection by others, both based in part in personal dispositions. Second, it comments briefly on Haney and Zimbardos critique of Carnahan and McFarlands study and of its applicability to the SPE. Finally, it illustrates the importance of selection and self-selection for situations of torture and suggests their importance for many situations.

Identification with All Humanity: The Antithesis of Prejudice, and More

Late one night in the winter in 1940, in the small French village of Le Chambon, a shivering Jewish woman knocked on the door of Andre and Magda Trocme, the local Lutheran minister and his wife. She was fleeing from the Nazis and desperate for food and shelter. Magda quickly took her in, fed her, and started thinking how to help her. The woman needed false identification papers and a place to hide. Across the next few weeks, Magda and Andre talked with their parishioners and neighbors, and soon the entire village was providing refuge for fleeing Jews. Some were smuggled to safety in Switzerland. Others were given false identities and hidden on nearby farms. Many were children. Despite a murderous Gestapo raid that killed several members of the community, across the next four desperate years Magda and Andre led Le Chambon in saving about 3,500 Jews from the Holocaust. When Andre was arrested and pressed to name all the Jews he had helped, he responded, “We do not know what a Jew is; we only know human beings” (Trocme, 2007, p. vii). In the 1980s and 1990s, psychologists conducted several interview studies of those who rescued Jews during the Holocaust, often comparing them to bystanders and Nazi perpetrators. Like the Trocmes, rescuers commonly believed that all human beings belong to one human family. One rescuer, interviewed by Samuel and Pearl Oliner, said it this way, “I had always considered all people regardless of their nationality, ethnic origins or race, religion, and so on, as members of one great family: mankind” (Oliner & Oliner, 1988, p. 157; see also Monroe, 1996). This volume is about prejudice. But in sharp contrast to prejudice against those of a different race or religion, these rescuers cared deeply for all humanity and risked their own lives to save them. I have studied the structure of generalized prejudice (e.g., McFarland, 2010a), including its negative effects on concern for humanity and human rights (e.g., McFarland & Mathews, 2005). Reading about these rescuers, however, suggested that to help overcome prejudice, a focus is also needed on its opposite, on the sense that, as the rescuer said, we are all “members of one great family.”

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights: A Tribute to Its Architects

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948, had five key architects: American Eleanor Roosevelt, Lebanon’s Charles Malik, China’s Peng-chun Chang, Canada’s John Humphrey, and France’s René Cassin. They represented diverse cultures and religions, and often disagreed sharply. This article offers a short history of their work and achievement.