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

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.

Social ascent changes cognition, behaviour and physiology in a highly social cichlid fish

When an individual ascends in dominance status within their social community, they often undergo a suite of behavioural, physiological and neuromolecular changes. While these changes have been extensively characterized across a number of species, we know much less about the degree to which these changes in turn influence cognitive processes like associative learning, memory and spatial navigation. Here, we assessed male Astatotilapia burtoni , an African cichlid fish known for its dynamic social dominance hierarchies, in a set of cognitive tasks both before and after a community perturbation in which some individuals ascended in dominance status. We assayed steroid hormone (cortisol, testosterone) levels before and after the community experienced a social perturbation. We found that ascending males changed their physiology and novel object recognition preference during the perturbation, and they subsequently differed in social competence from non-ascenders. Additionally, using a principal component analysis we were able to identify specific cognitive and physiological attributes that appear to predispose certain individuals to ascend in social status once a perturbation occurs. These previously undiscovered relationships between social ascent and cognition further emphasize the broad influence of social dominance on animal decision-making. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The centennial of the pecking order: current state and future prospects for the study of dominance hierarchies’.

Children’s inequality aversion in intergroup contexts: The role of parents’ social dominance orientation, right-wing authoritarianism and moral foundations

Although children are overall sensitive to inequality and prefer fair allocation of resources, they also often display ingroup favouritism. Inquiring about the factors that can shape the tension between these two driving forces in children, we focused on the role of parents. Extending the limited literature in this field, the present work examined whether individual differences in 3-to 11-year-old White children’s (N = 154, 78 boys) evaluations of fair versus pro-ingroup behaviours in an intergroup context vary as a function of both mothers’ and fathers’ social dominance orientation (SDO), right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), and moral foundations. Parents completed a questionnaire. Children were presented with a scenario in which two ingroup members distributed candies to two other children, one White and one Black, either in an egalitarian way or displaying a clear ingroup favouritism. Afterwards, their attitudes towards the two ingroup members who had distributed the candies were assessed through both an Implicit Association Test and explicit questions. Although children displayed on average an explicit preference for the fair over the pro-ingroup target, this preference did not emerge at the implicit level. Most importantly, both children’s explicit and implicit attitudes were related to mothers’ SDO, indicating that at increasing level of mothers’ SDO children’s inequality aversion tended to drop. Overall, these results emphasize the relevance of mothers’ support for social hierarchy in relation to the way in which children balance the two competing drives of equality endorsement and pro-ingroup bias.

Risks of expressing your authentic self in sport: the influence of stigma covering on perceived job fit and hiring recommendations

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to examine how identity covering techniques can influence raters' perceptions of job candidates who have a socially stigmatized identity. Specifically, the authors explore how raters respond to two types of candidates: one who does not mention his gay identity during the interview process, and one who openly discusses their gay identity during the interview process. The authors also investigate whether job type (sport operations vs business operations) and the rater's views toward social equality influence perceptions of job fit and subsequent hiring recommendations.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted an experiment to examine whether an applicant's level of stigma covering, type of job posting and rater's views toward social equality influenced perceptions of job fit. The authors then tested whether perceptions of job fit mediated hiring recommendations. Adults in the USA (n = 237) who were employed and had served on a hiring committees participated in the survey.FindingsWhen applying for sport operations jobs, as opposed to business operations jobs, gay male applicants are viewed more favorably if they engage in high levels of identity covering. Further, the applicant's level of stigma covering influenced raters who reported high or moderate social dominance orientation but did not impact raters with low social dominance orientation. Overall, the findings reveal that identity covering techniques do have relevance for studying the dynamics of hiring gay men who apply for jobs in the sport industry.Originality/valueThe study advances the understanding of identity management techniques by examining the nuances of how applicants can choose to disclose their stigmatized identity, and how those decision influence the hiring process.

Tests of Social Dominance on Charitable Intent Towards Minorities

<p>This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the design of adverts for charitable causes may be unintentionally priming viewers in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO: Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). Huang and Liu (2005) found evidence that presenting people with material that makes social hierarchies salient can temporarily increase a person's level of SDO. As many charities make differences in social hierarchy salient as part of their advertisement campaigns, it is possible that such advertisements may unintentionally prime the SDO of viewers. Given prior research that indicates that high SDO is correlated with antisocial attitudes (Sibley & Duckitt, 2010), such priming may be reducing the likelihood that viewers would donate towards the charitable cause. First, a pre-test was conducted to test the psychometric structure and reliability of the SDO7 (Ho, et al., in print) and the Counter Dominance Orientation measure (CDO: Pratto et al., 2012). Confirmatory factor analysis of each measure found a four-factor model of SDO and a two-factor model of CDO. Subsequently, 139 first-year students of psychology were used to test the previously-mentioned hypothesis. Participants were asked to critically evaluate one of two adverts for a student support service, with the one in the experimental condition being for a service for Māori and Pacifica students. The intent of this advert was to prime viewers on SDO. Afterwards, they engaged in a hypothetical public goods game where a portion of the money pool would go towards the service the advert was for. If the hypothesis was correct, participants who were primed on SDO would be less willing to contribute towards a cause that supported minorities, but the data did not support this. Implications and potential future research, both for the new measures and the hypothesis are explored.</p>

Tests of Social Dominance on Charitable Intent Towards Minorities

<p>This thesis investigates the hypothesis that the design of adverts for charitable causes may be unintentionally priming viewers in Social Dominance Orientation (SDO: Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle, 1994). Huang and Liu (2005) found evidence that presenting people with material that makes social hierarchies salient can temporarily increase a person's level of SDO. As many charities make differences in social hierarchy salient as part of their advertisement campaigns, it is possible that such advertisements may unintentionally prime the SDO of viewers. Given prior research that indicates that high SDO is correlated with antisocial attitudes (Sibley & Duckitt, 2010), such priming may be reducing the likelihood that viewers would donate towards the charitable cause. First, a pre-test was conducted to test the psychometric structure and reliability of the SDO7 (Ho, et al., in print) and the Counter Dominance Orientation measure (CDO: Pratto et al., 2012). Confirmatory factor analysis of each measure found a four-factor model of SDO and a two-factor model of CDO. Subsequently, 139 first-year students of psychology were used to test the previously-mentioned hypothesis. Participants were asked to critically evaluate one of two adverts for a student support service, with the one in the experimental condition being for a service for Māori and Pacifica students. The intent of this advert was to prime viewers on SDO. Afterwards, they engaged in a hypothetical public goods game where a portion of the money pool would go towards the service the advert was for. If the hypothesis was correct, participants who were primed on SDO would be less willing to contribute towards a cause that supported minorities, but the data did not support this. Implications and potential future research, both for the new measures and the hypothesis are explored.</p>

Clarifying the nature of the association between social dominance orientation and environmentalism

<p>A small number of studies have reported a negative association between social dominance orientation (SDO: the relative preference for social inequality and intergroup dominance) and environmentalism. However, the existing research has yet to fully investigate the nature of this relationship. In this thesis, I develop a programme of research that aims to clarify how ideology relates to environmentalism, in several important ways. I start by systematically reviewing the relationship between SDO, the related ideological construct of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA: the preference to submit to authority and tradition, and punish those who deviate), and environmentalism. I do this by meta-analysing the associations reported in the existing literature, and previously un-published datasets. These analyses show that both ideological constructs are important for understanding human-environment relations. Importantly, SDO is more strongly related to environmentalism in general population samples than in student samples, which helps to reconcile previous inconsistencies in the literature. I then explore the ideology-environmentalism link over time, comparing the strengths of the associations with environmentalism and SDO and RWA. Consistent with the meta-analyses I show that, while RWA is more predictive of changes in environmental attitudes over time in student populations, SDO is the key predictor among general population samples. Therefore, dependent on sample, these findings indicate that endorsing these ideologies lead to changes in environmentalism over time. Next, I elaborate on the SDO-environmentalism relationship by exploring whether and how the two facets of SDO (anti-egalitarianism and dominance) differentially relate to environment-relevant attitudes. Overall, I find that anti-environmental attitudes are largely driven by individual preference for inequality rather than for intergroup dominance. Previous work, including my own, has focused exclusively on quantitative survey-based methods. I invited individuals scoring relatively high, moderately, and low on SDO to share their ideas on climate change. Interviews with these individuals revealed that many were concerned about the causes, consequences, and potential solutions to climate change. Most participants were also armed with justifications excusing their, and others’, inaction on the problem. To establish how the ideas shared in the interviews related to SDO, I reworked them into statements for survey-based research. This research demonstrates that ideology (both SDO and RWA) also related to most of these interview-based statements, with those scoring higher on dominance attitudes more opposed to top-down action on climate change, and those more tolerant of inequality more opposed to individual action. In sum, my work adds to the growing body of research that establishes ideology as a barrier to environmental engagement. My findings support the interpretation of SDO as a barrier to engagement through an environmental justice framework. If we are to stop the warming of the planet and increased social inequality that this brings, then we must also understand ideology as a barrier to belief and action on climate change.</p>