How Fears of Bin Laden Can Lead to Authoritarian Parenting

[no_hypocrisy]

A new study finds a strange link between terrorist fearmongering and the impulse for corporal punishment.

With the recent discovery of explosives hidden in cargo airplanes, fears of a terrorist attack have returned to the front of many people’s minds. If the past is any indication, this sense of apprehension is likely to make us less trusting of outsiders, and less tolerant of those who violate social norms.

What’s more, it may also make us bad parents.

That’s the implication of research published in the November issue of the journal Social Psychology. A team of scholars led by Peter Fischer of the University of Graz in Austria reports thoughts of terrorism seem to inspire authoritarian parenting practices.

Parents who are exposed to terrorist threats “are reminded about the dangers existing out in the world, which makes them more motivated to ensure their children’s safety,” the researchers write. Unfortunately, the way they respond to this natural impulse may have long-term negative implications for their kids.


http://www.alternet.org/media/148951/how_fears_of_bin_laden_can_lead_to_authoritarian_parenting/?page=1


This article struck a nerve in me. My father was/still is ultra authoritarian. He probably got more hyper with the Korean War, the McCarthy Era, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the Vietnam War. Like neocons, he governed from fear, not vision and compassion.

[tigereye]

1. wow, that's an angle I had never considered, although it

makes a certain amount of sense, relative to the fear aspect leading to hyper-control. Kind of sad, especially since the risk from actual terrorism is quite low and the reactions to same could be seen almost as an kind of anxiety reaction...