If Pflaum had simply shown that the 'F' scale correlated with assent to popular myths and superstitions of the past, that could simply be written off as just another interesting finding of uncertain implication. The correlations Pflaum found, however, were so high that they enabled claims that a parallel form of the 'F' scale had been found. Pflaum has therefore made an explicit discovery about what the F scale consists of. It is a collection of old-fashioned myths and superstitions or statements that strongly resemble them. At any event, it is clear that the attitudes expressed in the 'F' scale were old-fashioned even when the 'F' scale was compiled.
Older people tend to get higher scores on it.
In the 20's conformity and obedience to authority were what was expected of children. In present times, however, this is replaced by values directed toward the child being more autonomous. In short, a high 'F' scorer is not a Fascist but rather someone who is still lost in the culture of the pre-war era. Since Hitler's Nazism did strongly tend to romanticize the past and perhaps took some of its values from the past, some understanding of how the two variables got mixed up would seem possible. Adorno et al heard various expressions of attitude from various sources in California that sounded to them like what they had heard from Hitler.