The “F” stands for “fascist”. Wikipedia The scale is still clinically used to measure prejudice and attitudes about power and authority. Virtually all mentions and associations with the F-Scale focus on the fascist Right. Rarely, if ever, is there mention of the fascism of the Left, which would naturally include the socialist dictatorships responsible for the deaths of hundreds of millions of people throughout the 20th Century.
In any event, the social psychologists of the first era concerned themselves with understanding how people could be so “easily” controlled to harm other people. No prescriptive activist solutions were offered or insisted upon other than education through communication.
The rise of the Neo-sociopsychology Movement
On the hand, the activist neo-sociopsychological Movement which has succeeded traditional social psychology appears to be less interested in understanding and explaining and more interested in the architecting, manipulating, re-engineering society as a whole on the basis of the truth as the movement perceives the truth.
Neo-sociopsychology is the only form of psychology that proposes to introduce inducements where possible, and penalties as necessary, for compliance to its theories and aims. The avowed intention of activist sociopsychology is to transform society into the image approved and envisaged by the proponents themselves.
In their book, Principles of Social Psychology – 1st International H5P Edition (2022), authors Stangor, Jhangiani and Tarry provide four intended takeaways:
* Changing our stereotypes and prejudices is not easy and attempting to suppress them may backfire. However, with appropriate effort, we can reduce our tendency to rely on our stereotypes and prejudices.
* One approach to changing stereotypes and prejudice is by changing social norms — for instance, through education and laws enforcing equality.
* Prejudice will change faster when it is confronted by people who see it occurring. Confronting prejudice may be embarrassing, but it also can make us feel that we have done the right thing.
* Intergroup attitudes will be improved when we can lead people to focus more on their connections with others. Intergroup contact, extended contact with others who share friends with outgroup members, and a common ingroup identity are all examples of this process.
One fundamental tenet of clinical psychology is that ethical psychologists treat people who come to them for help and who make that conscious choice. Social Psychologists study social relationships and communicate that understanding to people who choose to learn it.
Proposing to “treat” an entire society to “change our stereotypes and prejudices” and “lead people to focus more on their connections with others,” as noted above, without the knowledge and consent of those being thus changed by a self-selected cadre of those who “know better” is problematic at best. Enlisting the aid of government to do so is even more problematic, if not skirting at the edges of authoritarianism.
