Research has characterized Turkish culture as very authoritarian in terms of family attitudes. To determine if any of the cultural differences in authoritarian personality scores are due to differences in language or measuring instruments rather than cultural differences in personaltiy traits, university students from the United States and Turkey were compared on three scales measuring authoritarian personality, i.e., the Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, the F-Scale, and the A-Scale. The students were divided into three groups: T/E which attended a Turkish university with classes taught in English; T/T which attended a Turkish university with all classes taught in Turkish; and A/E which attended a midwestern university in the United States. Results showed a clear inter-cultural difference in authoritarian personality characteristics; differences were due to disparities between the A/E and T/T cultural language groups. The American culture group displayed a significantly lower level of authoritarianism compared to a higher level in the Turkish culture group. The findings suggest the effect of measurement instruments on inter-cultural differences in inter-measure comparisons, indicating a response format effect on subject self-ratings of personality charateristics. (JAC)