The hypothesis that scores on the F scale and similarly constructed inventories are primarily measures of acquiescence rather than authoritarianism is tested by testing subjects on a G scale composed of opposite statements to those of the F scale. Response set to acquiescence was measured by obtaining each individual's tendency to support both F and G scale statements. If individual fluctuations from one scale to another are ignored, they tend to differ significantly from each other in tendency to acquiesce. Response set to acquiescence increased as items became more ambivalent. It is suggested that a much more parsimonious explanation can be given to account for the positive relations between authoritarianism, misanthropy, xenophobia, and ethnocentrism. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)