Bowing and kicking: Rediscovering the fundamental link between generalized authoritarianism and generalized prejudice

Generalized prejudice (GP), biases expressed toward multiple outgroups, is typically explained by two aspects of authoritarianism: 'bowing' in the form of submission (i.e., right-wing authoritarianism, RWA); and 'kicking' in the form of dominance (i.e., social dominance orientation, SDO). Whereas contemporary approaches treat RWA and SDO as separate GP predictors, we statistically model the commonality between RWA and SDO reflecting an underlying tendency toward generalized authoritarian (GA). Re-analyzing data from an existing meta-analysis (Study 1), and modelling meta-analytic data from studies containing clear GP-relevant information (Study 2), we compare: (a) the standard approach of predicting GP based on RWA and SDO as unique predictors (Model 1); with (b) an alternative approach based on a latent GA factor indicated by RWA and SDO (Model 2). The alternative model provided stronger (and near-perfect) prediction of GP, along with specific associations between RWA and two types of prejudice (sexism, homophobia). These findings have fundamental implications for understanding authoritarianism and prejudice-proneness.