The F scale: the test for measuring fascism

Theodor Adorno developed this test to measure the degree to which a person tends toward fascism.

Each and every one of us is a unique being, who will live different lives and experience different situations. Also the way we see and interpret the world, and how we relate to our environment, is distinctive to each person. The same is true of our opinions and attitudes towards different areas and situations in life.

All this is of enormous interest to sciences such as psychology, which throughout its history has generated a large number of instruments and methods to measure and assess the existence of personality traits and the tendency to believe and value reality in certain ways. There are a large number of them, some of which are used to assess the degree of predisposition towards a particular personality type or trait. An example of the latter is Theodor Adorno's F scalewhich pretends to measure the predisposition to fascism and authoritarianism.

The F scale of fascism

It is known as scale F an instrument of evaluation of the human personality created with the objective of generating a method that allowed to value the existence of what it denominated an authoritarian personality or, better said, of the tendency or predisposition to the fascism (coming the F of the scale of this word).

This scale was born in 1947 by Adorno, Levinson, Frenkel-Brunswik and Sanford, after the end of the Second World War and having to live for a long time in exile. The scale is intended to assess the presence of a personality that can predict fascist tendencies. based on the measurement of prejudices and opinions contrary to democracy, seeking to assess the existence of an authoritarian personality.

Specifically, the test measures the existence of rigid adherence to the values of the middle class, the tendency to rejection and aggression towards those contrary to conventional values, the hardness and concern for power and dominance, superstition, the contrariety before the emotional or subjective and ascription to a rigid rationality, cynicism, the predisposition to consider the projection of impulses as the cause of dangerous situations, the repulsion towards divergent sexuality, the idealization of one's own group of belonging and authority and the submission to norms generated by this group, and the submission to norms generated by this group. and authority and the submission to norms generated by it..

The authoritarian personality

The creation of the F scale starts from the consideration of the existence of an authoritarian personality, a theory defended by Adorno, among others, which can generate a tendency towards fascism. a tendency towards fascism.

This author considered that social attitudes and ideologies were to some extent part of the personality, something which in the case of fascism could explain a type of personality tending towards conservatism, exaltation of the ingroup, aggressiveness and repulsion towards non-conventional values. Thus, although somewhat cultural the emergence of attitudes such as fascism or democracy would be the product of a type of personality that is tending to conservatism, exaltation of the ingroup, aggressiveness and repulsion towards non-conventional values..

The author, with a psychoanalytic orientation, considered that the authoritarian personality is the product of an unconscious repression that is intended to be solved by intolerance. The authoritarian subject presents an extreme attitude derived from the projection to the exterior of his own internal conflicts. For this philosopher, authoritarianism would be linked to neuroticism and to a childhood of being dominated by a superego..

Throughout his childhood, the subject has been subjected to a superego that has not allowed the ego (drives, desires and impulses) of the child to develop normally, being insecure and needing a superego to guide his behavior. This will lead to the generation of attitudes of domination and hostility to what the subject considers outside his group of belonging..

The characteristics of an authoritarian person are resentment, conventionalism, authoritarianism, rebellion and psychopathic aggressiveness, tendency to compulsiveness of intolerant and maniacal habits and manipulation of reality in pursuit of developing a dictatorial posture.

A scientifically debatable scale

Although the scale is intended to provide a valid measurement instrument, the truth is that scientifically it suffers from a series of characteristics that have made it the object of a wide variety of criticisms.

In the first place, the fact that, taking into account the basis on which it was elaborated, it is pathologizing a specific type of something, it is pathologizing a specific type of something that is not based on something psychiatric, but on a specific type of political attitude. but in a type of concrete political attitude or ideology. It also highlights the fact that a person's political opinion can be highly modifiable, something that does not seem to be taken into account.

Another reason for criticism is the fact that the test items were not the test items were not pre-tested, and that there is a certain biasand that there are certain biases in their formulation that reduce their validity and objectivity. The items are also not mutually exclusive, something that hinders the interpretation of the test and can either inflate or devalue its results. Furthermore, its elaboration was subsidized by the American Jewish Committee, which is an element that implies the existence of a conflict of interests.

Another criticism is that the interviewer can use the results in a discriminatory manner, being an instrument with a certain amount of guilt and criminalization of the person being evaluated, depending on his or her results. criminalization of the person being evaluated, depending on his or her results.. Thus, the evaluator is not totally biased during his or her internship.

A last criticism is made taking into account that the scale only values authoritarianism linked to right-wing political conservatism, not valuing the option of authoritarianism by leftist groups.

Bibliographical references:

Adorno, T. W.; Frenkel-Brunswik, E.; Levinson, D.J. & Sanford, N.R. (2006). The Authoritarian Personality (Preface, Introduction and Conclusions). EMPIRIA Journal of Social Science Methodology, 12:. 155-200. National University of Distance Education. Madrid, Spain.