scholarly journals Cruelty and indifference are the point: Preference for hierarchy is related to support for policies that harm marginalized groups through feeling both less empathy and more schadenfreude

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa-kiera Tiarra Jolynn Hudson ◽  
Mina Cikara ◽  
Jim Sidanius
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Intergroup Conflict ◽  
Social Emotions ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
The Social ◽  
Initial Support

Individuals who have relatively higher levels of social dominance orientation (SDO; Ho et al., 2015) are more likely to support policies and engage in behaviors that harm marginalized groups through both passive (e.g., neglect) and active (e.g., subjugation) means. While SDO is positioned as a relevant antecedent to outcomes regarding intergroup conflict, the mechanisms by which SDO impact group harm are underspecified. In this paper we investigate the social emotions of intergroup empathy and schadenfreude—the congruent negative and incongruent positive emotional reactions, respectively, a person has in response to the suffering of members from another social group—as key mediators between SDO and intergroup harm. More specifically, we test a model in which SDO leads to active harm primarily through feeling schadenfreude while SDO leads to passive harm primarily through not feeling empathy. In four pre-registered studies (N = 3,468), we show initial support for this model, as SDO’s associations with actively harmful policy support were more strongly mediated through schadenfreude than empathy, while SDO’s associations with passively harmful policy support were more strongly mediated through empathy than schadenfreude. We discuss the relevance of these findings to intergroup conflict interventions more broadly, as well as highlight the role of schadenfreude in motivating intergroup harm.

scholarly journals Nature Connectedness and Nature Exposure Interactively Influence Social Dominance Orientation and Policy Support for Marginalized Groups during the COVID-19 Pandemic

2021 ◽  
pp. 001391652110311
Author(s):  
Henry Kin Shing Ng ◽  
Angel Nga Man Leung
Keyword(s):  
Natural Environment ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Policy Support ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
High Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nature Connectedness ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Attitudes And Behavior

Social dominance orientation (SDO) has been reported to predict attitudes and behavior toward the natural environment. This research investigated whether dispositional connectedness with and temporary exposure to nature would reversely alter SDO. Two studies reported consistent results: Nature connectedness predicted lower SDO, and exposure to nature (vs. urban) decreased SDO only among nature-connected people. Moreover, the effect of nature exposure was strongest when the environment registered high security features. Study 2 generalized the findings on SDO to people’s policy support for marginalized groups in the US during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings are discussed in the light of the transition from people-to-nature connections to interpersonal connections and the heterogeneity of nature’s effect. We conclude by discussing the importance of nature exposure, of which people have been deprived since the global lockdown, in combating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Social Dominance Orientation and Discrimination against People with Schizophrenia: Evidence of Medicalization and Dangerousness Beliefs as Legitimizing Myths

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitrios Lampropoulos ◽  
Thémis Apostolidis
Keyword(s):  
Social Distance ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Social Dominance Theory ◽  
Modeling Analysis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Humanities Students

AbstractMedicalizing beliefs about schizophrenia (biogenetic causes and psychiatric labels) are connected to the belief that people with schizophrenia are dangerous and to discriminating intentions towards them. In this research, we draw on the Social Dominance theory and we examine these beliefs as legitimizing myths that are connected to the individuals’ social dominance orientation (SDO) and that legitimize discrimination. In total, 238 Humanities students participated in the current research (Mage = 20.4; SD = 3.03; 107 male and 131 female). A vignette presenting a person with schizophrenia symptoms that offered no labels or explanations about the depicted person’s condition was presented to research participants. A structural equation modeling analysis was carried out, in order to confirm our hypotheses in accordance with social dominance theory. Participants’ social dominance orientation (SDO) was associated with higher endorsement of medicalizing (β = .16, p < .01) and dangerousness beliefs (β = .22, p < .001). In turn, medicalizing beliefs were connected to dangerousness (β = .21, p < .001) and higher discriminating intentions, both for desired social distance (β = .15, p < .05) and for deprivation of sociopolitical rights (β = .14, p < .05). Dangerousness was highly associated with both these measures (β = .28, p < .001 and β = 43, p < .001 respectively) while SDO was not significantly associated with discriminating intentions. Our model showed good fit to the data. This study confirms the role of SDO in schizophrenia stigma and the fact that ideological and power factors underpin the stigma of schizophrenia.

scholarly journals Ambivalent Speciesism Scale: Development, Validity and Reliability

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (18) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Animal Rights ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Animal Ethics ◽  
High Reliability ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
The Social ◽  
Orientation Scale ◽  
Animal Use

The aim of this study is to develop a scale compatible with current animal ethics studies to measure the phenomenon of speciesism, that is marginalization of animals and prejudice and discrimination against animals. In order to develop the Ambivalent Speciesism Scale, an item pool was created by examining the animal ethics literature and social psychology studies on human-animal relations, and then the items were edited by taking the opinions of people studying animal rights and experts in measurement and evaluation in psychology. The scale is designed in 7-point Likert type. The trial form was applied to the participants together with the Speciesism Scale, the Social Dominance Orientation Scale and the Basic Empathy Scale. Participants were selected from individuals representing different lifestyles in the context of animal use, using the snowball sampling technique. The study was conducted with 288 participants; 64 men, 217 women and, 7 of whom are not of both genders. While there were 24 items in the trial form of the scale, nine of these items were eliminated as a result of the factor analysis. The final form of the scale with 15 items has a high reliability (.90). The items of the scale are divided into three dimensions: belief in human superiority, protective speciesism, and speciesism in language. It was determined that the scores obtained from the scale were in positive correlation with the scores obtained from the other scale measuring speciesism and the social dominance orientation scale, as expected. The scores obtained from the scale are distributed as expected among the groups that include lifestyles related to animal use. These data were evaluated as findings showing the validity of the scale. Keywords Speciesism, ambivalent speciesism scale, animal rights, discrimination, animal ethics

scholarly journals Experiments in political psychology

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyle Fischer ◽  
Quentin Atkinson ◽  
Ananish Chaudhuri
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Ultimatum Game ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Orientation Scale ◽  
The Right ◽  
Social Conservatism

This chapter provides an overview of studies that use incentivised experiments to study political ideology. We look first at studies that conceptualise political ideology along a unidimensional liberal-conservative spectrum and explore whether there are behavioural differences between liberals and conservatives. While recent studies find that liberals display more pro-sociality, many other studies find that liberals and conservatives display similar levels of pro-social, ingroup-biased, normative, and punitive behaviour. We then turn to experiments that study two-dimensional political ideology as embodied in the concepts of economic conservatism/progressivism (often measured with the Social Dominance Orientation scale) and social conservatism/progressivism (usually measured with the Right-Wing Authoritarianism scale). In such experiments, economic conservatives display lower levels of pro-sociality and universalism and greater tolerance of inequality and tendencies to harm outgroups. Social conservatives tend to display “groupishness”, including distrusting anonymous strangers, cooperating with ingroup members, following rules, punishing in the ultimatum game, and sometimes harming outgroups.

scholarly journals Increased Conformity to Social Hierarchy Under Public Eyes

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daeeun Kim ◽  
JuYoung Kim ◽  
Hackjin Kim
Keyword(s):  
Social Status ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Social Hierarchy ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
Fear Of Negative Evaluation ◽  
The Public ◽  
Individual Preferences ◽  
The Social

Why would people conform more to others with higher social positions? People may place higher confidence in the opinions of those who rank higher in the social hierarchy, or they may wish to make better impressions on people of higher social status. We investigated how individual preferences for novel stimuli are influenced by the preferences of others in the social hierarchy and whether anonymity affects such preference changes. After manipulation of their social rank, participants were asked to indicate how much they liked or disliked a series of images. Then, they were shown the rating given to each image by a partner (either inferior or superior in social rank) and were given a chance to adjust their ratings. The participants were more likely to change their preferences to match those of a superior partner in the public vs. private condition. The tendency to conform to the views of the superior partner was stronger among those with higher social dominance orientation (SDO) and those with greater fear of negative evaluation (FNE) by others. Altogether, the findings suggest that the motivation to make better impressions on people of higher social status can be the major driver of conformity to others with higher social positions.

Obedient Authoritarians or Lay Darwinists?

2019 ◽  
pp. 29-61
Author(s):  
Michał Bilewicz
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Mass Murder ◽  
Social Darwinism ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Holocaust ◽  
Insight Into ◽  
General Explanation

This chapter discusses the role of ideology in genocides, beyond the traditional conservatism–liberalism distinction. This chapter analyzes ideological views in greater detail by reviewing established psychological concepts, such as authoritarianism and social dominance orientation, as well as conspiracy theories, racial health ideology, and the concept of Lebensraum that formed the ideological foundation of the Holocaust and other large-scale crimes. Authoritarian ideology accurately explains the behavior of desk killers, bureaucrats responsible for organizing the mass murder. Social dominance ideology seems to give a more general explanation of genocide—it can be found in German social Darwinism, the idea of Lebensraum, the Nazi eugenic program, and the illusions spread by occupiers among the victims and the bystanders. The chapter suggests that deep study of ideologies might provide important insight into perpetrators’ worldviews and into their justifications of criminal acts, as well as an explanation of bystanders’ and victims’ behavior.

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