Social dominance orientation and social dominance theory

Social dominance orientation (SDO) is a social–attitudinal dimension representing the extent to which an individual endorses the idea of hierarchy between groups in society or the dominance of certain groups over others (SDO is sometimes informally referred to as social dominance but should not be confused with social dominance as defined in evolutionary and developmental psychology and behavioural studies as behavioural dominance in social or communal groups (e.g., dominating territory, social interaction/attention, or access to resources or mating opportunities)). SDO is one of the most widely researched constructs in social and political psychology, with individual differences in SDO found to be related to various personality traits and predictive of a wide range of social attitudes and behaviors across times and cultures. For example, higher SDO is consistently linked to more conservative beliefs and attitudes, higher prejudice against stigmatized or disadvantaged social groups, and more socially undesirable personality characteristics (e.g., low agreeableness, high psychopathy). Research increasingly indicates that SDO consists of two correlated but distinct dimensions: intergroup dominance (SDO-D) and intergroup antiegalitarianism (i.e., opposition to equality; SDO-E).