Authoritarianism Left Right

The research literature long treated authoritarianism as a right-wing phenomenon, leaving left-wing authoritarianism as an unopened file.

The plate shows a single drawer labeled RWA and an empty or excluded LWA category, arguing that the psychological categories were incomplete.

SteelMan: Altemeyer's RWA scale dominated for decades; critics argued a parallel left construct was theoretically possible but rarely measured.

Cut: Absence from early scales is not proof of absence in the population. Later work (Costello, Conway) built measures precisely because the drawer was empty.

Left- and right-wing authoritarianism share an appetite for top-down enforcement, centralized control, and strict group conformity; only the justifying values differ.

The plate lists shared traits (centralized control, conformity) and states that the spectrum changes the sermon but not the appetite for a single line.

SteelMan: If the behavioral markers of authoritarianism are content-independent, a left version is expected once the content of the creed is swapped.

Cut: Shared markers do not prove identical prevalence or identical downstream effects. The plate treats the appetite as settled.

Left-wing authoritarianism is a measurable construct comprising anti-hierarchical aggression, top-down censorship, and anti-conventionalism, supported by multi-study work including Emory and Conway's 12-study set.

The plate cites 12 global studies and 74,000+ participants and presents LWA as a scored triad rather than a vibe.

SteelMan: Conway et al. (2023, Frontiers in Psychology) report 12 studies with >8,000 U.S. and >66,000 World Values Survey participants showing LWA traits parallel to RWA. Costello et al. (JPSP) developed an LWA measure at Emory.

Cut: The plate's 74,000 figure aggregates across designs; individual studies vary in size and sampling. Construct validity is still debated.

• Conway et al., Is the myth of left-wing authoritarianism itself a myth?, Frontiers in Psychology, 2023
• Emory News: Left-wing authoritarians share key psychological traits with far right, 9 Sept 2021

One dimension of LWA is the desire to use centralized authority to regulate speech, suppress opposing views, and punish dissent.

The plate frames this as an appetite for a center that can close the sentence.

SteelMan: If authoritarianism includes willingness to coerce conformity, a left version can target speech that violates progressive norms.

Cut: Desire for centralized speech control is not unique to the left; the plate does not quantify prevalence or compare to RWA speech preferences.

LWA treats nonconformists to the new creed as fundamentally immoral, parallel to RWA's moral absolutism about traditional norms.

The plate states that the content of the creed changes but the demand that you join it does not.

SteelMan: Moralization of dissent is a documented feature of high-authoritarianism profiles on both sides.

Cut: The plate equates the intensity of the demand without evidence that the social cost is the same.

LWA includes a drive to dismantle established power structures while installing a new mandatory center.

The plate says the old hierarchy is illegitimate and the new center is mandatory.

SteelMan: Rejection of existing hierarchy plus enforcement of a replacement is consistent with revolutionary authoritarian patterns.

Cut: Dismantling a hierarchy is not itself authoritarian; the authoritarian move is the enforcement of the successor.

Ideological extremes on left and right converge on cognitive rigidity and low flexibility, contrary to the claim that the left is universally higher in openness.

The plate shows far-left and far-right tips as neighbors on cognitive measures.

SteelMan: Some studies find reduced cognitive flexibility at both extremes.

Cut: Openness-to-experience averages still differ by ideology in large samples; extremity effects do not erase mean differences.

On rule-shifting tasks, both far-right and far-left poles show difficulty adapting when the rule changes.

The plate depicts both poles treating a rule change as unacceptable or as a system error.

SteelMan: Behavioral tasks have shown rigidity at ideological extremes.

Cut: Task performance is not ideology; the plate does not report effect sizes or controls.

Conformity pressure in ideological movements is often social rather than statutory; the penalty is the room.

The plate shows group pressure to conform across left positions.

SteelMan: Social sanctions can enforce norms without law.

Cut: The plate does not distinguish informal social pressure from organized enforcement.

A 2025 structural MRI study links LWA and RWA to different gray-matter and cortical-thickness patterns, particularly in regions involved in anxiety, threat, and cognitive control.

The plate highlights amygdala, ACC, vmPFC, dACC, and insula, arguing for a biological basis in uncertainty and stress management.

SteelMan: Adrián-Ventura et al. (Neuroscience, 2025) report associations between LWA/RWA scores and gray-matter volume / cortical thickness in a sample of 100 young adults.

Cut: N=100 is modest for structural claims; correlations are not causal and do not establish that brain differences produce the political attitudes.

• Adrián-Ventura et al., Authoritarianism and the brain, Neuroscience, 2025

RWA prefers traditional figures (military, police, religious leaders); LWA prefers centralized state, medical/scientific authorities, or activist groups. Both want a voice that may not be argued with.

The plate contrasts preferred authority sources.

SteelMan: Authoritarianism can attach to different institutional targets.

Cut: Preference for expert authority is not identical to authoritarian submission.

RWA enforces long-standing conventional norms; LWA enforces new political and ideological correctness. Both treat the norm as non-optional.

The plate states the old norm and the new code are both treated as non-optional.

SteelMan: The content of the enforced norm differs; the structure of enforcement can be parallel.

Cut: The plate does not show that the rate or severity of enforcement is equal.

Both RWA and LWA recode disagreement as a contaminated or harmful type rather than ordinary dissent.

The plate shows disagreement recoded as contamination.

SteelMan: Moralization of opponents is common at high authoritarianism.

Cut: Recoding dissent is not unique to authoritarian profiles; the plate does not measure frequency.

Authoritarianism functions as a psychological defense mechanism rather than an ideology; people choose a wing for the sermon and the bunker for the fear.

The plate frames both paths as leading to the same behavioral science outcome.

SteelMan: Threat and uncertainty predict authoritarian responses across content domains.

Cut: Defense-mechanism language can psychologize political disagreement.

Need for order, moral certainty, low tolerance for dissent, system justification, and preference for strong leadership predict authoritarian behavior and have manifested in historical left-wing regimes.

The plate lists these traits and links them to left-wing authoritarianism.

SteelMan: These traits appear in standard models of authoritarianism.

Cut: Trait lists do not establish that modern left movements meet clinical or historical thresholds for authoritarianism.

The left-wing profile is not the absence of authoritarian psychology; it is a different combination of ingredients producing the same appetite for control.

The plate states the profile is a different recipe, not an empty category.

SteelMan: If the construct is real, a distinct left profile is expected.

Cut: Recipe language is metaphorical; the plate does not specify the weights.

RWA often aligns with grandiose narcissism (status, power); LWA frequently aligns with vulnerable narcissism (victimhood, moral justification for aggression). Status is the prize; moral language is the instrument.

The plate contrasts grandiose vs. vulnerable narcissism.

SteelMan: Narcissism subtypes have been linked to different political styles in some studies.

Cut: The mapping is correlational and not universal; many high-LWA or high-RWA individuals do not score high on narcissism.

Intense moral outrage and empathy for perceived in-group victims is paired with suspended empathy and support for harsh punishment of out-group opponents.

The plate says feeling deeply for one side is used to feel nothing for the other.

SteelMan: Selective empathy is documented in intergroup conflict.

Cut: The plate does not show that left-wing profiles are more selective than right-wing ones.

LWA correlates with neuroticism and anxiety; the proposed fix is a powerful centralized authority to solve large problems such as climate change.

The plate links anxiety to demand for centralized fixers.

SteelMan: Threat sensitivity is a known correlate of authoritarianism.

Cut: Correlation with anxiety does not mean the policy preference is caused by the anxiety or that the policy is authoritarian.

Individual anxiety, search for moral certainty, mass in-group conformity, and total centralization of state power form a sequence observed in historical regimes.

The plate diagrams the path from anxiety to centralized power.

SteelMan: Historical cases exist in which revolutionary movements centralized power.

Cut: Sequence diagrams are not causal proof; many anxious or conformist populations do not produce total states.

The Bolshevik project smashed the old order and installed Gosplan-style centralized economic authority in the name of socioeconomic equality; the utopian ideal morphed into enforced plan.

The plate states the old order is smashed and the plan becomes the new order.

SteelMan: Soviet central planning is a documented historical case.

Cut: Equating modern LWA scores with Bolshevik practice requires a bridge the plate does not supply.

Maoist campaigns demanded absolute ideological purity and treated moderate or bourgeois views as contamination; the crowd was the instrument.

The plate says the old is the target, purity is the demand, the crowd is the instrument.

SteelMan: The Cultural Revolution is a documented case of mass ideological enforcement.

Cut: Historical analogy is not measurement of contemporary LWA.

The Khmer Rouge sought total destruction of prior institutions, money, language, and hierarchy; what remained was wreckage rather than equality.

The plate states the old hierarchy is erased and equality is not the result.

SteelMan: Khmer Rouge policies are historically documented.

Cut: The plate does not show that contemporary left movements share the Khmer goal set.

A 21st-century form of left authoritarianism staffs universities, media, and expert institutions rather than storming the palace, producing linguistic and ideological conformity.

The plate says it does not storm the palace; it staffs the hallway.

SteelMan: Institutional capture is a possible mechanism distinct from armed revolution.

Cut: Staffing institutions is not itself authoritarian; the authoritarian claim requires evidence of enforced conformity.

Platform algorithms optimize for engagement, not ideology, and thereby amplify content that triggers LWA-relevant traits.

The plate says the machine wants time and the traits supply it.

SteelMan: Engagement-based ranking is a documented platform design.

Cut: The plate does not demonstrate that LWA traits are preferentially amplified relative to other high-engagement content.

Algorithms prioritize content that generates moral outrage because the metric is minutes and the selected emotion is fury with a moral name.

The plate says they do not care about the cause; they care about the share.

SteelMan: Outrage content receives high engagement on many platforms.

Cut: Prioritization of outrage is not unique to left-coded content.

Empathic concern for victim groups, combined with injustice detection, raises a moral alert that is amplified and shared.

The plate says the feeling is care and the trigger is a framed harm.

SteelMan: Moralized harm detection can drive sharing.

Cut: The plate does not show that the detection is systematically false.

A loop of perceived bigotry or systemic oppression, share, and punishment for the offender is reinforced by engagement.

The plate says the loop pays in engagement and the user pays in certainty.

SteelMan: Feedback loops between user behavior and ranking are real.

Cut: The plate does not quantify how often the perceived offense is accurate.

LWA correlates with vulnerable narcissism; platforms convert virtue signals into public status, offering a pedestal to a fragile self.

The plate says the platform takes the input and mints status.

SteelMan: Status-seeking is a known social-media dynamic.

Cut: The correlation does not mean platforms were designed to exploit LWA specifically.

Likes, retweets, and comments function as a public scoreboard that rewards morally righteous takes and denunciation of opponents.

The plate shows public metrics attached to moral content.

SteelMan: Public metrics shape behavior.

Cut: The plate does not show that the scoreboard uniquely rewards LWA content.

Content that aligns with existing worldview is preferentially shown; the chamber is a retention design, not an accident of taste.

The plate says the chamber is a retention design.

SteelMan: Recommendation systems optimize for continued use.

Cut: Alignment with worldview is a general feature, not an LWA-specific one.

The LWA trigger includes in-group conformity; the comfort is sameness and the cost is any second map.

The plate says the comfort is sameness.

SteelMan: Conformity pressure exists in many groups.

Cut: The plate does not measure the cost of dissent.

The algorithmic loop removes dissent, tradition, skepticism, humor, statistics, local values, and alternative data, raising the cost of dissent.

The plate lists categories filtered out.

SteelMan: Ranking can reduce exposure to disconfirming content.

Cut: The plate does not demonstrate that these categories are systematically suppressed rather than simply less engaged.

Trust-and-safety operations and AI moderators are asked to remove harmful ideas, functioning as a centralized authority that prevents an opposing map.

The plate says the request is for a center that can remove the opposing map.

SteelMan: Content moderation is a real institutional practice.

Cut: Moderation of illegal or harassing content is not identical to removal of opposing political maps.