Social Dominance Orientation
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What is Social Dominance Orientation?
It is one’s general psychological motivations toward group dominance and is measured on a continuum from “high” (positive) to “low” (negative) support and preference for group-based dominance in general. (Pratto, 1999)
What does it mean to be high in social dominance orientation?
How is it measured?
What does Social Dominance Orientation correlate with?
Is it conceptually distinct?
Is it empirically distinct?
What is some recent research on Social Dominance Orientation
- Patriotism, Group Position, and Intergroup Emotions: Felicia Pratto presented analysis of data comparing college students in the US vs. Lebanon at the annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology convention in January 2006. The data examined emotional factors related to Social Dominance Orientation. Americans with high patriotism and SDO reported being more proud and less sad when the US bombed Afghanistan, and made decisions favoring policies that would harm Afghan civilians; it was theorized that Americans would see these things as restorative of higher group position. Conversely, among Lebanses, high patriotism and SDO decreased pride and increased sadness. This was not surprising, but confirmed that group position and ideologies together determine emotional experiences to intergroup events. Pratto also presented evidence that patriotism (operationalized as love of one’s own country) and nationalism (desire that one’s own country be dominant over others) – because they relate to SDO - result in very different decisions about harming and helping Afghanis while interacting with the emotions of anger, grief, and Shaudenfreud (enjoyment in the suffering of others). This reaction was such that Shaudenfreud increased harming and decreased helping in high SDO Americans but increased BOTH in high SDO Lebanese.
- [the results for anger and grief are not included in this summary because the authors notes were lost and this research has not yet been published at the time of writing]
