[link|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Altemeyer|Robert Altemeyer] is a psych prof at Univ of Manitoba. His book The Authoritarians is available [link|http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/|online]. He also says authoritarian followers are more apt to see the world as dangerous. From chapter 2, "... it turns out in experiments that a person's fear of a dangerous world predicts various kinds of authoritarian aggression better than any other unpleasant feeling I have looked at."

The book is very readable.