Conservatism and Authoritarianism Among Urban Afrikaners

Summary

Ninety-five whites living in the Afrikaner city of Bloemfontein, South Africa, were randomly sampled and answered a questionnaire containing scales of Conservatism, Authoritarian attitudes, Authoritarian personality, Self-esteem, Anxiety, Attitude to Blacks, Achievement motivation, Conformity, and Social desirability set. When compared with American respondents to the same items, the Afrikaners were found to be exceedingly conservative but not more authoritarian in personality. They were also very highly achievement motivated. The correlations between the scales revealed that Afrikaner conservatives tended to be ambitious and anti-Black but not especially low in self-esteem, anxious, dishonest, conforming, or authoritarian. Afrikaners with higher scores on authoritarian personality were inclined to be ambitious, nonconforming, better educated, and of high self-esteem. They generally were not particularly racist, conservative, or dishonest. Nationalist (pro-Apartheid) voting was predicted somewhat by achievement motivation but not by conservatism.