Political preferences and behavior are rooted in psychological traits. Locus of control theory describes in terms of internality or externality whether individuals believe they exercise a lot of influence over events in their lives, or whether they attribute such events to outside forces such as luck, fate, or some authority. I applied this theory to political science to explore whether this construct can predict authoritarian preference. I focused on Russia and hypothesized that Russians may be more predisposed toward an external locus of control and preference for authoritarianism than are citizens of liberal democracies. I use Pew Research Center's Spring 2011 Survey data to test effects of locus of control on authoritarian preference, controlling for country and for economic strength preference. Preference for a strong economy most strongly correlates with preference for a strong-hand leader, but I also find a significant effect of locus of control and country on authoritarian preference.