# What happens to people who score high on bigotry and authoritarianism, but are not the in-group **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 26, 2018, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187 "2018-03-26T03:30:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/1 "2018-03-26T03:30:26Z")
Assume you’re a Zoroastrian in Iran, or black in America, or an atheist in Saudi Arabia. You score high on tests for bigotry and authoritarianism. If you were part of the in group (Shia muslim in Iran, white in the US, Sunni Muslim in Saudi Arabia, etc) then you probably become an angry, aggressive militant filled with hate and anger about all the impure outsiders in your culture. What happens to people who score high on these personality traits but who are not part of the in group in a culture, or are targets for prejudice and violence by the in group? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/2 "2018-03-26T03:40:38Z")
I imagine they fare poorly. People opposed to bigotry don’t like them because they’re bigots. And the other bigots don’t like them because they’re the wrong type of bigot. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/3 "2018-03-26T03:48:32Z")
You end up as miserable clowns: [Nation of Islam - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Islam)[Jewish Defense League - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Defense_League) ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/4 "2018-03-26T06:15:06Z")
Almost always, people like this can find some sub-group nearby that they can look down on. QAnd looking down on some ‘other’ group seems to be a major part of that personality type. Some of the most strident support for slavery (and later, Jim Crow laws) came from poor whites, people who had never actually owned a slave. (“I may be just a poor sharecropper, but at least I ain’t a n\*gger!”) In India, the lower classes were the most bigoted toward the ‘untouchables’, the very lowest class. Currently in America, opposition to GLBT equality is very strong among black people. The California Proposition 8 referendum passed on black votes (and a bit of vote fraud). And especially in their own families – black kids who come out are more likely to thrown ouit of their families than white kids. Religion seems to be a real source for this. When my Methodist father married my Catholic mother, there were relatives who said “_at least it’s not a Lutheran!_”. And still felt this way, decades later. And it was relatives in both families who said this! Every bigoted group seems to find some ‘other’ group they can despise. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_the\_Immortal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@Max\_the\_Immortal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_the_Immortal)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/5 "2018-03-26T08:16:46Z")
> [@t-bonham@scc.net](#): > > Religion seems to be a real source for this. > When my Methodist father married my Catholic mother, there were relatives who said “_at least it’s not a Lutheran!_”. And still felt this way, decades later. And it was relatives in both families who said this! > > Every bigoted group seems to find some ‘other’ group they can despise. I’m reminded of a great joke by Emo Philips: > [@](#): > > Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, “Don’t do it!” He said, “Nobody loves me.” I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?” > > He said, “Yes.” I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?” He said, “A Christian.” I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?” He said, “Protestant.” I said, “Me, too! What franchise?” He said, “Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?” He said, “Northern Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?” > > He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.” I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?” He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.” I said, “Me, too!” > > Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.” I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/6 "2018-03-26T12:42:28Z")
I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood and went to a grade school that was overwhelmingly Jewish. I was an atheist and was treated very well, enjoying all the great foods my friends family’s served. I got off for xmas _and_ yom kippur. Life was good… Then in 4th grade an Iranian family moved in and their son attended my grade school. He got beat up several times a week. Not because the kids were vicious or anything, but because he was vocally antisemitic. Every fucking day he’d find a reason to rant about how “Jews are worse than dogs” and shit like that. Kids had no choice but to beat him up. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2018, 1:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-people-who-score-high-on-bigotry-and-authoritarianism-but-are-not-the-in-group/811187/7 "2018-03-26T13:02:13Z")
I am thinking of Sonny Liston, the former heavyweight boxing champion. He grew up sharecropper-poor - he was one of 25 children of an abusive father. He was far from stupid, but he was almost uneducated, more or less illiterate, and this was back in the days of Jim Crow. He reacted by becoming the Bad N\*gger of the white establishment’s nightmare - armed robber, headbreaker for the unions, and a terrifying presence where ever he went. He didn’t need a group to look down on - everyone looked down on him, and he reacted by scaring them. So sometimes that’s how haters react - they hate back, and not just at one group. They don’t identify with any “in-group” - they are their own in-group. Regards, Shodan