scholarly journals Hierarchy-Enhancing Misinformation: Social Dominance Motives Are Uniquely Associated With Republicans’ Belief In and Sharing of Election-Related Misinformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Martin Lees ◽  
Victoria Ashley Parker
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Repeated Measures ◽  
Party Identification ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Repeated Measures Design ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Presidential Election

The aftermath of the 2020 US Presidential election saw a deluge of election-related misinformation which falsely asserted that the election was “stolen” from Donald Trump. Since then a majority of Republicans have consistently expressed belief in this misinformation, despite no evidence for its veracity and its motivating role in the January 6th, 2021 attack on the US Capitol. Here we present evidence, using a repeated-measures design (N = 355) across a highly generalizable stimulus set, that Republicans’ support for 2020 US election-related misinformation and willingness to share it on social media are uniquely associated with social dominance motives, along with conspiracy mentality and party identification strength. We find little evidence that right-wing authoritarianism is associated with the belief in or sharing of election-related misinformation, and that cognitive reflectiveness is only associated with sharing, but not belief. We introduce the theoretical lens of Hierarchy-Enhancing Misinformation to interpret these findings, arguing that election-related misinformation is best understood as a functional mechanism by which group-based dominance hierarchies are socially and psychologically reinforced.

Differentiating Between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton Voters Using Facets of Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social-Dominance Orientation

2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 364-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Howard Michael Crowson ◽  
Joyce A. Brandes
Keyword(s):  
Presidential Election ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Discriminant Validity ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Donald Trump ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Political Outcome ◽  
The Right

Historically, much of the research on right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation has proceeded from the assumption that they are unidimensional. Recently, researchers have begun to seriously consider the possibility that they are multidimensional in nature and should be measured as such. Several studies have examined the unique relationships between right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation facets and social and political outcome measures of interest. However, there have been no efforts to include the full slate of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation facets as predictors in the same model. This is problematic when investigating the discriminant validity of these facets, given the potential empirical overlap among the facets both within and across scales. We included facets of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation as predictors of U.S. voters’ intentions to vote for Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election. Data were collected in September 2016. We found evidence for the discriminant validity of several of the right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation facets.

Interpersonal Disgust, Ideological Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes

2007 ◽  
Vol 18 (8) ◽  
pp. 691-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Hodson ◽  
Kimberly Costello
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Path Model ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Disgust Sensitivity ◽  
Group Representations ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Attitudes Toward Immigrants ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism

Disgust is a basic emotion characterized by revulsion and rejection, yet it is relatively unexamined in the literature on prejudice. In the present investigation, interpersonal-disgust sensitivity (e.g., not wanting to wear clean used clothes or to sit on a warm seat vacated by a stranger) in particular predicted negative attitudes toward immigrants, foreigners, and socially deviant groups, even after controlling for concerns with contracting disease. The mechanisms underlying the link between interpersonal disgust and attitudes toward immigrants were explored using a path model. As predicted, the effect of interpersonal-disgust sensitivity on group attitudes was indirect, mediated by ideological orientations (social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism) and dehumanizing perceptions of the out-group. The effects of social dominance orientation on group attitudes were both direct and indirect, via dehumanization. These results establish a link between disgust sensitivity and prejudice that is not accounted for by fear of infection, but rather is mediated by ideological orientations and dehumanizing group representations. Implications for understanding and reducing prejudice are discussed.

Prejudice and personality: A role for positive-approach processes?

2012 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 446-447 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles Seger ◽  
Philip J. Corr
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Approach Motivation ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Positive Approach ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism

AbstractIndividuals differ in their support for social change. We argue that examinations of inequality and change would benefit from consideration of underlying personality processes. New data suggest that Right-Wing Authoritarianism and Social Dominance Orientation, indicators of support for inequality, may be motivated by biologically driven personality processes, particularly those related to positive-approach motivation.

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 Leadership Preferences of Conservatives: A Desire for Cold/Cruel Dominance with (Conflicting) Links to Sadism

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Scott Sinn
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Interpersonal Circumplex ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Regression Analyses ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
Leadership Study ◽  
Negative Predictor ◽  
Leader Preference

Recent findings suggest political conservatives prefer dominant leaders (Laustsen & Petersen, 2015, 2016). However, the exact sociofunctional nature of the desired dominance is unclear. Evolutionary psychology suggests two possibilities: coordinating action and imposing costs. Study 1 operationalizes these functions using the agency and nurturance axes of the interpersonal circumplex, with respondents characterizing either themselves or their ideal leaders, thereby creating “dominance profiles” for various measures of conservatism. Results show Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), self-reported conservatism, strong-leader authoritarianism, and (to a lesser degree) Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) predict a preference for low-nurturance (i.e., cold/cruel) leaders. Unexpectedly, conservatives show no preference for agentic leadership. SDO and strong-leader authoritarianism show a preference for passive leadership. Study 2 examined whether the cold/cruel preference shown in Study 1 entails a conservative preference for sadistic leaders or leaders with other dark tendencies (e.g., Machiavellianism, psychopathy, ruthless self-advancement, rejection of ethics). Multiple regression analyses reveal SDO, strong-leader authoritarianism, and RWA as the best predictors of sadistic-leader preference. Interestingly, RWA is a negative predictor. Additional analyses find multiple dark-leader preferences for several conservatism measures (but not RWA). Among other implications, the results suggest SDO may reflect a strategy seeking exploitation rather than intergroup hierarchies.

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