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Original Article

Social Dominance Orientation

Mapping a Baseline Individual Difference Component Across Self-Categorizations

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-0001/a000042

There has been considerable debate regarding the extent to which prejudice results from individual differences versus situational factors affecting self-categorization. We provide evidence for a stable baseline level of association between one individual difference index of prejudice proneness, that of social dominance orientation (SDO), and generalized racist attitudes. Consistent with an individual difference perspective, SDO retained a baseline level of association with racism across conditions invoking ethnic versus personal identity (N = 179 European/white undergraduates). Consistent with a self-categorization theory perspective, however, this association was heightened when ethnic (vs. personal) identity was made salient prior to (but not after) the assessment of SDO. Although the salience of different social identities moderated the association between SDO and prejudice, manipulating identity salience did not entirely remove or alter the direction of the effect. This supports our argument that there exists a baseline level or individual difference component of SDO that predicts prejudice and that cannot be accounted for by the manipulation of social identification as an individual versus a member of the ethnic majority in New Zealand.

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