AUTHORITARIANISM AND MENTAL RIGIDITY - THE EINSTELLUNG PROBLEM REVISITED

As with many issues in psychology, after decades of research no consen sus was reached regarding the relationship between authoritarianism an d mental rigidity. In particular, the literature describing experiment s on authoritarianism and Einstellung rigidity left the basic question unresolved. The present study, based on Christie's review of this lit erature, used his recommendations for improvements in experimental met hodology. An experiment with 101 college undergraduates found greater rigidity among high authoritarians only under conditions designed to p roduce ego involvement. These results were bolstered by the finding th at low humanism as measured by Tomkins's Polarity Scale, also predicte d rigidity. The second dimension of polarity theory (normativism) did not predict rigidity. The present findings suggest that the rigidity o f authoritarians may result from arousal produced by ego involvement.