Cross-cultural adaptation and factor structure of the Brazilian version of the right-wing authoritarianism

Abstract

The most widely used scale to assess authoritarianism is the Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA). It assesses authoritarianism related to thoughts commonly associated to the right-wing ideology, and it is correlated to homophobia, opposition to transsexuals' civil rights, social conformity and selfcategorization as a right-wing partisan. Although it has already been used in Brazilian context, there are no studies adapting it to the national context. This study sought to adapt RWA to Brazilian Portuguese and analyze its psychometric properties in the Brazilian context through exploratory factor analysis. The cross-culturally adapted version displayed a four-factor structure and good internal consistency indexes: Authoritarianism (a = 0,936), Contestation to Authority (a = 0,858), Traditionalism (a = 0,871) and Submission to Authority (a = 0,897). The instrument also displayed criterion validity between groups, as well as convergent and divergent validity. Therefore, the measure is valid and reliable for the investigation of authoritarianism in the Brazilian population.