Public Opinion Questionnaire (Form 40-45)

The Public Opinion Questionnaire is the final 30-item version of the California F Scale. The items are listed in Table 7 on pages 255-257 of The Authoritarian Personality. The items appear in the same order as originally administered, but the item numbers have been changed. Instructions for administration are in Table 4 on pages 110-111, and the scoring procedure is described on pages 71-72, 109, and 242. Higher scores indicate increasing authoritarianism.

Public Opinion Questionnaire

The following statements refer to opinions regarding a number of social groups and issues, about which some people agree and others disagree. Please mark each statement in the left-hand margin according to your agreement or disagreement, as follows:

+l: slight support, agreement

+2: moderate support,

+3: strong support•

-1: slight opposition, disagreement

-2: moderate opposition,

–3:      strong opposition,

21. Obedience and respect for authority are the most important virtues children should learn.
22. No weakness or difficulty can hold us back if we have enough will power.
23. Science has its place, but there are many important things that can never possibly be understood by the human mind.
24. Human nature being what it is, there will always be war and conflict.
25. Every person should have complete faith in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question.
26. Whenaperson has a problem or worry, it is best for him not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.
27. A person who has bad manners, habits, and breeding can hardly expect to get along with decent people.
28. What the youth needs most is strict discipline, rugged determina­ tion, and the will to. work and fight for family and country.
29. Some people are born with an urge to jump from high places.
30. Nowadays when so many different kinds of people move around and mix together so much, a person has to protect himself especially carefully against catching an infection or disease from them.
31. An insult to our honor should always be punished.
32. Young people sometimes get rebellious ideas, but as they grow up they ought to get over them and settle down.
33. It is best to use some prewar authorities in Germany to keep order and prevent chaos.
34. What this country needs most, more than laws and political programs, is a few courageous, tireless, devoted leaders in whom the people can put their faith.
35. Sex crimes, such as rape and attacks on children, deserve more than mere imprisonment; such criminals ought to be publicly whipped, or worse.
36. People can be divided into two distinct classes: the weak and the strong.
37. There is hardly anything lower than a person who does not feel a great love, gratitude, and respect for his
38. Some day it will probably be shown that astrology can explain a lot of things.
39. The true American way of life is disappearing so fast that force may be necessary to preserve it.
40. Nowadays more and more people are prying into matters that should ,remain personal and private.
41. Wars and social troubles may someday be ended by an earthquake or flood that will destroy the whole world.
42. Most of our social problems would be solved if we could somehow get rid of the innnoral, crooked, and feebleminded people.
43. The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans was tame compared to some of the goings-on in this country, even in places where people might least expect it.
44. If people would talk less and work more, everybody would be better off.
45. Most people don’t realize how much our lives are controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
46. Homosexuals are hardly better than criminals and ought to be severely punished.
47. The businessman and the manufacturer are much more important to society than the artist and the professor.
48. No sane, normal, decent person could ever think of hurting a close friend or relative.
49. Familiarity breeds
50. Nobody ever learned anything really important except through

Public Opinion Questionnaire

The following statements refer to opinions regarding a number of social groups and issues, about which some people agree and others disagree. Please mark each statement in the left-hand margin accordi_ng to your agreement or disagreement, as follows:

+l: slight support, agreement

+2: moderate support,.

+3: strong support,

-1: slight opposition, disagreement

-2: moderate opposition,

-3: strong opposition,     ”

1.       A love of freedom and complete independence are the most important virtues children should learn.
2. All the will power in the world will not help us when weaknesses and difficulties stand in our way.
3. The success of modem science proves that every important thing can ultimately be understood by the human mind.
4. Because human nature is improving, war and conflict will eventually be eliminated.
5. Every person should have complete faith in his own independent judgment, not in some supernatural power whose decisions he obeys without question.
6. When a person has a problem or worry, he should drop everything and concentrate upon it until the solution appears.
7. The deeper and more enduring qualities in getting along well with people are far more important than external things like manners, habits, and breeding.
8. What the youth needs most is complete freedom from discipline in order to flow naturally into the onward stream of cooperative progress for the benefit of all mankind.
9. It is known with complete certainty that the urge to jump from high places is learned, not inborn.
10. Nowadays, since democracy demands that people of widely different background and station mix together, a person should not be finicky about catching a disease from any of them.
11. An insult to our honor should always be overlooked, for “whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.”
12. The rebellious ideas that young people sometimes get must be encouraged and developed at all costs to guarantee mature citizen­ ship in adulthood.
13. Only if prewar authorities are kept out of the German government, will true democracy be achieved in that country.
14. What this country needs most, more than willful leaders, are laws and political programs requiring all citizens to actively share responsibility.
15. Sex offenses, such as rape and attacks on children, never merit punishment; such offenders should always be treated with kindness and sympathy by qualified psychiatrists.
16. All attempts to divide people into the two distinct classes of the weak and the strong are doomed to failure.
17. Every truly mature person outgrows childish feelings of submissive respect and of excessive love and gratitude for his parents.
18. Such pseudosciences as astrology have never explained anything and never
19. The surest way to insure the disappearance of the true American way of life is to resort to the use of force.
20. In this scientific age there can be no justification for denying investigators the right to study so-called personal and private matters.
21. The complete end to wars and social problems will soon be realized.
22. There would be no iI1UD.oral, crooked, or feebleminded people, if we could get down to brass tacks and somehow get rid of our social problems.
23. The wild sex life of the old Greeks and Romans makes sexual goings-on in this country seem tame.
24. If people talked things over and didn’t work so much, everybody would be better off.
25. It is foolish and ridiculous to have ideas that our lives could possibly be controlled by plots hatched in secret places.
26. Homosexuals are never criminals and must not be punished as such.
27. The business man and the manufacturer are not any more important to society than the artist and the professor.
28. No sane, norm.al, decent person can avoid having thoughts of hurting close friends or relatives.
29. We are bound to admire and respect a person if we get to know him well.
30. Nobody ever learned anything really important through suffering.

California F Scale

The Public Opinion Questionnaire identified as “Form 40-45 Orig.” is the final, 30 item, version (Form 40 and 45) of the California F Scale. The items for this scale are given in Table 7 (VII) on pages 255-257 of T. W. Adorno, E. Frenkel­ Brunswik, D. J. Levinson, and R. N. Sanford, The Authoritarian Personality, New

York: Harper & Brothers, 1950. The items appear in the present questionnaire in the same order that they were originally administered, but the item numbers have been changed. One item in the scale (originally nwnber 30 and now number 19 and identified as number 41 in Table 4 (VII) on pages 248-250) was not listed in Table 7 (VII) because of a typographical error. Another item (now number 13) is dated and therefore generally omitted when the scale is used. This item should be deleted from the questionnaire for our work.

The other Public Opinion Questionnaire, labelled “Form 40-45 J. Sr M Rev.,” is the revised version of this scale. It       appears in D. N. Jackson and S. Messick, “A Note on ‘Ethnocentrism’ and Acquiescent Response Sets,” Journal of Abnormal and

social Psychology, 1957, 1,i, 132-134. The items are listed in the same order as

in the original scale. Again, item number 13 should be deleted for our work.

The title of these questionnaires and the instruments for administration appear in Table 4 (IV) on pages 110-lll at Adorno et al. The scoring procedure, which is the same for both questionnaires, is described on pages 71-72, 109, and 242 of that publication. Since high scores were intended to express increasing authoritarianism, all responses to the items on the original scale are scored as

follows:

-3 = 1

-2 = 2

-1 = 3

+1 = 5

+2 = 6

+3 = 7

Similarly, all responses to the items on the reversed scale are scored:

-3 = 7

-2 = 6

-1 = 5

+l = 3

+2 = 2

+3 = 1

Note that the scoring skips from 3 to 5 between -1 and +l. Four represents the hypothetical neutral response, and is assigned when the item is omitted.

A person’s total score on the scale is the sum of his scores on the items divided by the number of items (30, or 29 when item number 13 is deleted)-the mean item score.