Canadian researcher Robert Altemeyer has spent three decades studying the psychology of authoritarianism, surveying thousands of students, parents, politicians and others. Continuing earlier work that began with *The Authoritarian Personality* (Theodore Adorno, et. al., 1950), but abandoning the superstructure of Freudian theory and building upward carefully from the empirical data he collected, Alremeyer developed the model of right-wing authoritarianism composed of three co-factors:

1. Authoritarian submission-a high degree of submission to the authorities who are perceived to be established and legitimate in the society in which one lives.

2. Authoritarian aggression-a general aggressiveness, directed against various persons, that is perceived to be sanctioned by established authorities.

3. Conventionalism-a high degree of adherence to the social conventions that are perceived to be endorsed by society and its established authorities.