Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Authoritarianism,Religiousness, and Conservatism : Is “Obedience to Authority” the Explanation for Their Clustering, Universality and Evolution?

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior

Part of the book series: The Frontiers Collection ((FRONTCOLL))

Abstract

Authoritarianism, Religiousness and Conservatism are among the most studied social attitudes in modern psychology . Measures of the three attitudes consistently correlate between 0.50 and 0.70. These strong correlations suggest that they form a higher order factor that I call Traditionalism. I review evidence that supports the idea of such a higher order factor distinct from other attitude factors and comparable higher order personality traits. I propose that an underlying cause of Traditionalism is the disposition to obey authority and more broadly to respond positively to symbols of authority. Contemporary research shows that variance in this trait is due to genetic factors and not due to patterns of childrearing. There is suggestive evidence that this trait facilitates reproductive fitness , but the evidence is very indirect and appropriately designed studies are needed to answer the question. The predisposition to obey authority is consistent with constructs in two other major evolutionary theories: Haidt’s theory of the evolution of moral intuition and Simon’s theory of “docility.” I further argue that while obedience to religious authorities can be seen as a form of exploitation, and may well be in some cases, the disposition to obey authority probably evolved in the context of reciprocity .

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Adorno T W, Frenkel-Brunswick E, Levinson D J, Sanford R N (1950) The authoritarian personality. Harper, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Alford J R, Funk C L, Hibbing J R (2005) Are Political Orientations Genetically Transmitted? American Political Science Review 99(2):153–167

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Altemeyer B (1996) The authoritarian specter. Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Altemeyer B (1988) Enemies of freedom. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Altemeyer B (1981) Right-wing authoritarianism. University of Manitoba Press, Winnipeg

    Google Scholar 

  • Atran S (2003) Genesis of suicide terrorism. Science 299:1534–1539

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Botwin M D, Buss D M, Shackelford T K (1997) Personality and Mate Preferences: Five Factors in Mate Selection and Marital Satisfaction. Journal of Personality 65:107–136.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard T J Jr (2004) Genetic Influence on Human Psychological Traits: A Survey. Current Directions in Psychological Science 13(4):148–151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard T J Jr, Lykken D T, Tellegen A, McGue M (1996) Genes, drives, environment and experience: EPD theory – Revised. In: Benbow C P, Lubinski D (eds) Intellectual talent: Psychometrics and social issues. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard T J Jr, Segal N L, Tellegen A, McGue M, Keyes M, Krueger R F (2004) Genetic influence on social attitudes: Another challenge to psychologists from behavior genetics. In: DeLilla L F (ed) Behavior genetic principles: Perspectives in Development, Personality and Psychopathology American Psychological Association, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Bouchard T J Jr, Segal N L, Tellegen A, McGue M, Keyes M, Krueger R (2003) Personality and Individual Differences 34(6):959–969

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyer P (2001) Religion explained: The evolutionary origins of religious thought. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bulbulia J A (2007) Evolution and religion. In: Dunbar R I M, Barrett L (eds) Oxford Handbook of evolutionary psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavalli-Sforza L L, Feldman M W (1981) Cultural transmission and evolution: A quantitative approach. Princeton University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Cavalli-Sforza L L, Feldman M W, Chen K H, Dornbush S M (1982) Theory and observation in cultural transmission. Science 218:19–27

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Charlesworth W R (2003) Profiling terrorists: A taxonomy of evolutionary, developmental and situational causes of a terrorist act. Defense and Security Analysis 19:241–264

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Christie R, Geis F L (1970) (eds) Studies in Machiavellianism. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Eaves L J, Martin N G, Heath A C, Hewitt J K, Neale M (1990) Personality and reproductive fitness. Behavior Genetics 20:563–568

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eaves L J, Heath A C, Martin N G, Maes H H, Neale M C, Kendler K S, et al. (1999) Comparing the Biological and Cultural Inheritance of Personality and Social Attitudes in the Virginia 30,000 Study of Twins and Their Relatives. Twin Research 2:62–80.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Eckhardt W (1991) Authoritarianism. Political Psychology 12:97–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eibl-Eibesfeldt I (1998) Us and the others: The familial roots of ethnocentrism. In: Eibl-Eibesfeldt I, Salter F K (eds) Indoctrinability, Ideology and Warfare: Evolutionary Perspectives. Berghahn Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Feather N (1978) Family Resemblance in Conservatism: Are Daughters More Similar to Parents than Sons? Journal of Personality 46:260–278.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feng D, Baker L A (1994). Spouse Similarity in Attitudes, Personality, and Psychological Well-being. Behavior Genetics 24:357–364.

    Google Scholar 

  • Finn M V, Alexander R D (2007) Runaway social selection in human evolution. In: Gangestad S W, Simpson J A (eds) The evolution of mind: Fundamental questions and controversies. Guilford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Galton F (1865) Hereditary Talent and Character. Macmillan’s Magazine 12:157–166

    Google Scholar 

  • Greeley A M (1969) Religion in the year 2000. Sheed & Ward, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Haidt J (2007) The new synthesis in moral psychology Science 316:998–1002

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Haidt J, Joseph C (2007) The moral mind: How 5 sets of innate moral intuitions guide the development of many culture-specific virtues, and perhaps even modules. In: Carruthers P, Laurence S, Stich S (eds) The innate mind: Foundations and the future, vol 3. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawks J, Wang E T, Cochran G M, Harpending H, Moyzis R K (2007) Recent acceleration of human adaptive evolution. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 104(52):20753

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Henrich J, Boyd R (1998) The evolution of conformist transmission and between-group differences. Evolution and Human Behavior 19:215–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hout M, Greeley A, Wilde M J (2001) The demographic imperative in religious change in the United States. American Journal of Sociology 107:468–500

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson W, Turkheimer E, Gottesman I I, Bouchard T J Jr (in press) Beyond Heritability: Twins as Tools of Behavioral Science. Current Directions in Psycholgical Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jost J T, Glaser J, Kruglanski A W, Sulloway F J (2003) Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin 129:339–375

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Keller B K, Whiston S C (2008) The Role of Parental Influences on Young Adolescents’ Career Development. Journal of Career Assessment 16(2):198–217

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kirk K M, Blomberg S P, Duffy D L, Heath A C, Owens I P F, Martin N G (2001). Natural Selection and Quantitative Genetics of Life History-traits in Western Women: A Twin Study. Evolution 55:423–435

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Koenig L B, Bouchard T J Jr (2006) Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Traditional Moral Values Triad – Authoritarianism, Conservatism and Religiousness – as Assessed by Quantitative Behavior Genetic Methods. In: McNamara P (ed) Where god and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion, vol 1: Evolution genes and the religious brain. Praeger, Westport CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Martin N G, Eaves L J, Heath A C, Jardine R, Feingold L M, Eysenck H J (1986) Transmission of social attitudes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 83(12):4364–4368

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • McCourt K, Bouchard T J Jr, Lykken D T, Tellegen A, Keyes M (1999) Authoritarianism revisited: genetic and environmental influences examined in twins reared apart and together. Personality and Individual Differences 27:985–1014

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milgram S (1974) Obedience to authority. Harper & Row, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mulder M B (2007) On the utility, not the necessity, of tracking current fitness. In: Gangestad S, Simpson J A (eds) The evolution of mind: fundamental questions and controversies. The Guilford Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Panksepp J, Panksepp J B (2000) The seven sins of evolutionary psychology. Evolution and Cognition 6:108–131

    Google Scholar 

  • Penke L, Denissen J J, Miller G F (2007) The evolutionary genetics of personality. European Journal of Personality 21:549–587

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pinker S (2006) The evolutionary psychology of religion. In: McNamara P (ed) Where god and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religions, vol 1: Evolution genes and the religious brain. Praeger, Westport CT

    Google Scholar 

  • Pratto F, Sidanius J, Stallworth L M, Malle B F (1994) Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:741–763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers J L, Hughes K A, Kohler H-P, Christensen K, Doughty D, Rowe D C, Miller W B (2001) Genetic influence helps explain individual differences in human fertility outcomes: evidence from recent behavioral molecular genetic studies. Current Directions in Psychological Science 10:184–188

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rodgers J L, Rowe D C, Miller W B (2000) Genetic influence on human fertility and sexuality: Theoretical and empirical contributions from the biological and behavioral sciences. Kluwer, Boston

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Sarich V (1993) Letter to the editors of Scientific American – 26 May 1993. Unpublished

    Google Scholar 

  • Saucier G (2000) Isms and the structure of social attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78:366–385

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Saucier G, Skrzypinska K (2006) Spiritual but not religious? Two independent dispositions involved in religiousness and spirituality. Journal of Personality 74(5):1257–1292

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scarr S (1981) Having the last word. In: Scarr S (ed) Race, social class, and individual differences in I. Q. Erlbaum, Hillsdale NJ

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon H A (1990) A Mechanism for Social Selection and Successful Altruism. Science 250:1665–1668

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Stace W T (1960) Mysticism and philosophy. Lippincott, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Sutton G C (1993) Do Men Grow to Resemble Their Wives? Journal of Biosocial Science 25:25–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tambs K, Sundet J M, Berg K (1993) Correlations between identical twins and their spouses suggest social homogamy for intelligence in Norway. Personality and Individual Differences 14:279–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tellegen A, Waller N G (2008) Exploring personality through test construction: Development of the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire. In G J Boyle, G Mathews, D H Saklofske (Eds) Handbook of personality theory and testing: Vol II. Personality measurement and testing. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Voland E, Voland R (1995) Parent/offspring conflict, the extended phenotype and the evolution of the conscience. Journal of Social and Evolutionary Systems 18:397–412

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Waller N G, Kojetin B A, Bouchard T J, Jr, Lykken D T, Tellegen A (1990) Genetic and Environmental Influences on Religious Interests, Attitudes, and Values: A Study of Twins Reared Apart and Together. Psychological Science 1:138–142.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang E T, Kodama G, Baldi P, Moyzis R K (2007) Global Landscape of Recent Inferred Darwinian Selection for Homo sapiens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 103:135–140

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Watson D, Klohen E C, Cassillas A, Simms E N, Haig J (2004) Match makers and deal breakers: Analyses of assortative mating in newlywed couples. Journal of Personality 72:1029–1068

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Wilson G (1973) (ed) The psychology of conservatism. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Department, University of Minnesota, 55455, Minneapolis, MN, USA

    Thomas J. Bouchard Jr

Authors
  1. Thomas J. Bouchard Jr
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Thomas J. Bouchard Jr .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Zentrum für Philosophie und, Universität Gießen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10, Gießen, 35394, Germany

    Eckart Voland

  2. MPI für Ornithologie, Von-der-Tann-Str. 3, Andechs, 82346, Germany

    Wulf Schiefenhövel

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Bouchard, T.J. (2009). Authoritarianism,Religiousness, and Conservatism : Is “Obedience to Authority” the Explanation for Their Clustering, Universality and Evolution?. In: Voland, E., Schiefenhövel, W. (eds) The Biological Evolution of Religious Mind and Behavior. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-00128-4_11

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation