Right‐wing authoritarianism,social dominance orientation and personality: an analysis using the IPIP measure

Abstract

Although both right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) have been found to predict racial and intergroup prejudice, previous research has suggested that RWA and SDO have quite distinct psychological features. We therefore examined the Big Five personality correlates of these two measures using facet scales from the International Personality Item Pool measure. Respondents were 220 university undergraduate volunteers. Significant sex differences were noted with respect to SDO and some facet scales. A series of analyses supported the view that RWA and SDO are aligned with different personality traits, while the discussion centred on the psychological profile of authoritarians and dominators. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adorno

Frenkel‐Brunswick

Levinson

Sanford

.1950. The Authoritarian Personality. Norton: New York.

Altemeyer

.1981. Right‐Wing Authoritariamsm. University of Manitoba Press: Winnipeg.

Altemeyer

.1988. Enemies of Freedom: Understanding Right‐Wing Authoritarianism. Jossey‐Bass: San Francisco.

Altemeyer

.1996. The Authoritarian Specter. Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA.

Altemeyer

.1998.The other ‘authoritarian personality’. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 30:47–91.

Costa

McCrae

,.1985. The NEO Personality Inventory: Manual Form S and Form R. Psychological Assessment Resources: Odessa, FL.

Doty

Winter

Peterson

Kemmelmeier

.1997.Authoritarianism and American students' attitudes about the Gulf War, 1990–1996. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23:1133–1143.

Duckitt

.1992. The Social Psychology of Prejudice. Praeger: New York.

Eysenck

,.1985. Personality and Individual Differences: A Natural Science Approach. Plenum: New York.

10.

Eysenck

SBG

,.1975. Manual of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Hodder and Stoughton: London.

11.

Goldberg

.1999. A broad‐bandwidth, public‐domain, personality inventory measuring the lower‐level facets of several Five‐Factor models. InPersonality Psychology in Europe, Vol. 7, Mervielde I , de Fruyt F , Ostendorf F (eds). Tilburg University Press: Tilburg;7–28.

12.

Haddock

Zanna

Esses

.1993.Assessing the structure of prejudicial attitudes: the case of attitudes to homosexuals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 65:1105–1118.

13.

Hays

Hayashi

Stewart

.1989.A five‐item measure of socially desirable response set. Educational and Psychological Measurement 49:629–635.

14.

Heaven

PCL

.1997.Social identities and individual differences: relationships with prejudice. Australian Journal of Psychology 49(Supplement):37.

15.

Heaven

PCL

Caputi

Greene

Stones

.2000.Level of social dominance orientation in three cultures. Journal of Social Psychology 140:530–532.

16.

Lambert

Chasteen

,.1997.Perceptions of disadvantage versus conventionality: political values and attitudes toward the elderly versus blacks. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 23:469–481.

17.

McCourt

Bouchard

Lykken

Tellegen

Keyes

.1999.Authoritarianism revisited: genetic and environmental influences examined in twins reared apart and together. Personality and Individual Differences 27 985–1014.

18.

McHoskey

.1996.Authoritarianism and ethical ideology. Journal of Social Psychology 136:709–717.

19.

Pratto

Sidanius

Stallworth

Malle

.1994.Social dominance orientation: a personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:741–763.

20.

Sidanius

.1993. The psychology of group conflict and the dynamics of oppression: a social dominance perspective. In Explorations in Political Psychology, Iyengar S , McGuire W (eds). Duke University Press: Durham, NC.

21.

Verkuyten

Hagendoorn

,.1998.Prejudice and self‐categorization: the variable role of authoritarianism and in‐group stereotypes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 24:99–110.

22.

Whitley

.1999.Right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 77:126–134.