The Journal af Social Psychology, 1343). 383-385. Current Problerns ‘and: Under this heading appear summaries of data that, in ‘500 wards or less, would in¢rease our comprehension of ‘socially compelling problems, move us somewhat closer to a solution, and clearly show promise of transcending ‘their own origin in the Zeitgeist. Additional details concerning re- sults can be obtained by communicating directly with the investi- gator or, when indicated,’ by requesting: supplementary. material from Microfiche Publications. Attribution of Right-Wing Authoritarianism as a Function of Self-Perceived Political Opinion C.R. AHRENS J.M, INNES. University of Adelaide, Australia VOTERS’ BELIEFS ABOUT what politicians actually believe may play a key role in determining how politicians’ messages are interpreted. In addition, the attribution of beliefs may differ according to what those making the attributions believe. A set of beliefs studied for many years is right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), which may be a factor that accounts partly for the behavior of politicians, Altemeyer (1988), for example, showed that members of different political parties in Canada show significant differences in average levels of RWA. We investigated the influence of the self-perceived political opinions of the perceivers on their perceptions of the levels of RWA in the major political parties in Australia, Fifty-four third-year psychology students, all of voting age, completed the RWA scale (Altemeyer, 1988), taking the role of either a right-of-center party Address correspondence to J. M. Innes, Department of Psychology and Sociology, James Cook University, Townsville, Australia 4811. 383 Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.384 __ The Journal of Social Psychology member (National Party, n = 16, or Liberal Party (right-wing in Australia), n = 6), or a left-of-center party member (Australian Labor Party, n = 18, or Demo- cratic Party, n = 4), The subjects then rated themselves on a 7-point scale ranging from very socialist (1) to very conservative (7). The subjects were categorized into three groups on the basis of self-rating: left wing (n = 19), moderate (n = 15), or right wing (n = 15). ‘The RWA attributions were analyzed in a 3 X 2 (Political Position x Party) analysis of variance (ANOVA). The interaction was significant, F(2, 43) = 3.66, P <.05. Subjects who rated themselves as left wing attributed higher RWA scores to right-wing politicians than did subjects who rated themselves as right wing (Ms = 236.14 vs, M = 192.20). Subjects who rated themselves as left wing attrib- uted lower RWA scores to left-wing politicians (M = 111.75 vs. M = 148.10). Voters in the moderate group rated the politicians midway between the extreme groups (right wing M = 225.83, left wing M = 130,33). There was no relation- ship between political position and rated interest in politics. These data point to a bias in the perception of political parties by subjects at different ends of the political spectrum. The results conflict with data in studies by Tetlock (e.g., 1984). They do suggest, however, that left-wing voters in this sample were more accurate in their attributions than subjects in other studies. The attribution of more RWA beliefs to right-wing politicians compared with left-wing Politicians is congruent with the findings of Altemeyer (1988), who found that right-wing politicians rated themselves higher on RWA than did left-wing politi- cians. In addition, these data do not give any support for an expectation, based on early social perception studies (Scodel & Mussen, 1953), that people in the United States with a right-wing political orientation may be more ready to per- ceive others as being right wing than those in the center or left of center. The right-wing students in this study were more likely than the others to see politicians ‘as moderate on the RWA scale. Further study within the same political culture needs to be done to see if there is a match between the perceptions of voters and the self-perceptions of politicians. It should also be noted that in the Australian context voting is compulsory; thus, a student sample of voting age can be considered to provide data more rele- vant to the issue than may be the case in studies in the United States, where there is continued criticism of such work (Sears, 1986). REFERENCES, Altemeyer, R. (1988). Enemies of freedom: Understanding right-wing authoritarianism. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Scodel, A, & Mussen, P. (1953). Social perceptions of authoritarians and nonauthoritari- ans. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 48, 181-184, Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.[Ahrens & Innes 385 Sears, D.O. (1986). College sophomores in the laboratory: Influences of a narrow data ‘base on social psychology’s view of human nature, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 515-530. ‘Tetlock, P. (1984). Cognitive style and political belief systems in the British House of ‘Commons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 365-315. Received August 31, 1993 Copyright © 2001. All Rights Reserved.