Verbal Style and Personality: Authoritarianism

Abstract

It has been suggested that an important aspect of the authoritarian personality is the "quest for unqualified certainty." When faced with novel problem situations, the approach of the authoritarian person tends to be "cautious, unimaginative, and careful."l It was the purpose of this investigation to determine whether this cautiousness of approach would manifest itself in the "style" adopted by subjects in response to a test of verbal habits-Cloze technique.