Personality & Public Opinion: The Case of Authoritarianism, Prejudice, & Support for the Korean & Vietnam Wars

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Abstract
The relationship between personality traits and political opinion is perhaps one of the more obscure, though important, areas of politics. In this article the authors argue that personality traits influence public opinion only under "conducive conditions," defined as the absence of inhibiting and the presence of facilitating factors. In order to account for the public support of aggressive policies in the United States during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, they turn to the theory of authoritarianism developed after the Second World War by a research staff under the direction of Theodor W. Adorno, identifying the psychological bases of anti-Semitism. Herzon, Kincaid, and Dalton discover a substantial correlation between authoritarianism and racial prejudice, on the one hand, and aggressive opinions on the Korean and Vietnam Wars, on the other.

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