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Attitudes toward group‐based inequality: Social dominance or social identity?
Author(s) -
Schmitt Michael T.,
Branscombe Nyla R.,
Kappen Diane M.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1348/014466603322127166
Subject(s) - social dominance orientation , social identity theory , social psychology , disadvantaged , psychology , dominance (genetics) , social group , inequality , affect (linguistics) , system justification , salient , social position , context (archaeology) , social identity approach , social relation , politics , political science , mathematics , authoritarianism , law , mathematical analysis , chemistry , biology , paleontology , biochemistry , communication , democracy , ideology , gene
In five studies we explored how the context in which people think about the social structure and the implications of the social structure for one's in‐group affect attitudes toward inequality. In Studies 1 and 2 we found that social dominance orientation (SDO) scores reflect attitudes toward specific types of inequality that are salient in context. Consistent with social identity theory, in Studies 3 to 5 we found that SDO scores reflected the interests of specific group identities. Indeed, when we compared existing privileged and disadvantaged groups, and when we manipulated in‐group status, we found that participants held more positive attitudes toward inequality when the in‐group was privileged, compared to when the in‐group was disadvantaged. Across all of our studies, results were consistent with the contention that attitudes toward inequality are group‐specific and depend on the social‐structural position of salient in‐groups. We discuss the implications of our findings for social dominance theory.