Very interesting article. I'd not heard of this study before.

Despite all their other work, the four authors of The Authoritarian Personality are still remembered for a study that started with $500 in research money from the UC Berkeley psychology department in 1943. Federico, who researches authoritarianism in America today, told Ars via e-mail that many of their findings are still relevant:

Above all, [The Authoritarian Personality] was correct in its key argument: that there are personality differences among individuals in the degree to which they prefer clear lines of social authority, strict social norms, and social uniformity as opposed to diversity. It was also correct in arguing that individuals who score high on authoritarianism in this respect tend to be more intolerant of those who are different (e.g., racial, ethnic, or religious minorities) or those [who] appear to deviate from traditional social norms (e.g., LGBT folks). They are also more likely to gravitate toward political figures (e.g., Trump in the present context) who embody intolerance and willingness to attack minorities who are believed to pose some kind of social threat.

The book has remained relevant partly because authoritarianism hasn't changed much in seven decades. It's easy to find parallels between authoritarians identified in the 1940s by the Berkeley group and people today who support authoritarian leaders like Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbàn, president-elect of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte, and presidential hopeful Donald Trump in the US.