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Social and ecological dominance orientations: Two sides of the same coin? Social and ecological dominance orientations predict decreased support for climate change mitigation policies
Author(s) -
Fatih Uenal,
Jim Sidanius,
Sander van der Linden
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
group processes and intergroup relations/group processes and intergroup relations
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1461-7188
pISSN - 1368-4302
DOI - 10.1177/13684302211010923
Subject(s) - social dominance orientation , dominance (genetics) , anthropocentrism , psychology , climate change , dominance hierarchy , social psychology , perception , ecology , aggression , political science , democracy , biology , politics , biochemistry , authoritarianism , neuroscience , law , gene
In this article, we examine the roles of social dominance orientation (SDO) and ecological dominance orientation (EDO) as predictors of climate change risk and threat perceptions and associated pro-environmental policy support. EDO is a novel measure that we devised based on social dominance theory to assess general preferences for an anthropocentric, hierarchical arrangement between humans, non-human animals, and the natural environment. Across two pre-registered studies ( N = 715; USA and Germany) our results indicate that SDO and EDO are uniquely associated with decreased support for climate change mitigation policies benefitting humans, non-human animals, and the natural environment. These relationships in turn are partially mediated by decreased climate change risk and threat perceptions. We successfully replicate our findings using a more behavioral measure as dependent variable. Notably, using a more behavioral measure (Study 2), EDO was significantly associated with pro-environmental behavior but not SDO, when threats are accounted for as mediators.