TELEVISION VIEWING AND ADOLESCENT AUTHORITARIANISM

A cross-sectional survey was conducted assessing the relationship between the psychological construct of authoritarianism and television viewing. The participants were 1190 high school students in the northeast United States. The results revealed a positive relationship between socio-political authoritarianism and the amount of television viewing. Further, a hypothesized ''mainstreaming'' pattern was discovered such that most of the relationship between television exposure and authoritarianism was more prevalent in the higher social classes. A hypothesis explaining the mainstreaming pattern is that television retards the political development of respondents in some more advantaged social groups. The role of abstract and cognitive ability in the television/authoritarianism association was explored as well. Exploratory tests reveal that abstract/cognitive ability, though associated both with authoritarianism and television viewing, does not completely explain the relationship.