Donald Trump and His Supporters Part 2

Lippitt and White’s studies attempted to develop techniques for describing the social atmosphere within children clubs. They showed how group leadership atmosphere affected individual behavior within the groups. They compared an authoritarian, democratic and a laissez-faire led group. Their findings on the individual boys in the authoritarian or autocracy led groups were that boys exhibited: 1. Much more hostility 2. More demands for attention. 3. More destruction of property 4. More scapegoating 5. A significant discontent that did not appear on the surface-a repression that was eventually released 6. More dependence and less individuality. More recently, there are attempts to understand the Donald Trump phenomena in today’s politics or run for the White House. Professor Jonathan Weiler, a co-author has written about today’s political shenanigans. He wrote about the authoritarian personality and their need for social order in today’s world around them; not liking others who are different; and they exhibited a desire for clear simplistic solutions to today’s problems. He quoted research in which four questions were asked that measured their attitude toward parenting styles and the attributes that they wanted children to incorporate and be like. The four research asked were: 1. Independence or respecting elders. 2. Obedience or self-reliance. 3 Curiosity or good manners. 4. Considerate or well behaved. The findings of this data were that the more the authoritarian attitude and that this variable was simply the best predictor of adult support for Trump. This predictor was more powerful and more accurate than gender, income, education, etc. in other words, an unemployed worker low on the authoritarian scale was not a Trump supporter .This finding does not mean that there are no other significant or other variables to consider. The college educated adult high on the authoritarian scale was a Trump supporter. These findings do not mean that there are no other significant or other variables to consider. To Be Contnued