DO AUTHORITARIAN AND CONSERVATIVE ATTITUDES HAVE PERSONALITY AND BEHAVIORAL IMPLICATIONS?
COMMENT ON ECKHARDT J.J. Ray University of N.S.W. In Ray (1988b) I commented that a paper by Eckhardt (1988) showed a very dated and inadequate knowledge of the literature and that a more careful perusal of the literature on authoritarianism, conservatism and racism would show that authoritarian and conservative attitudes did not have the personality and behavioral correlates generally attributed to them. Eckhardt seems to have taken this reproof somewhat to heart and has now offered a regrettably still brief and selective literature review of knowledge in this field (Eckhardt, 1991). While his 27 page article is undeniably substantial, it should be noted that Altemeyer (1981) took half a book to survey the writings in this field and even then comprehensively covered work only up to about 1973. At any event, Eckhardt concludes, among other things, that conservatism has virtually no personality or behavioral correlates and that conservative and authoritarian attitudes are closely allied
