A US government-funded study has concluded that conservatism can be explained psychologically as a set of neuroses rooted in "fear and aggression, dogmatism and the intolerance of ambiguity".

The report's four authors linked Hitler, Mussolini, former Republican president Ronald Reagan and the rightwing talkshow host Rush Limbaugh, arguing they all suffered from the same affliction.

All of them "preached a return to an idealised past and condoned inequality".