Reliability
Internal Consistency
The Cronbach alpha coefficient in 13 samples averaged .83, ranging from .80 to .89 ( Pratto et al., 1994 ).
Test/C0Retest
Two test /C0retest reliability studies over three months exhibited significant correlations of .81 and .84 ( Pratto
et al., 1994 ).
Validity
Convergent/Concurrent
SDO correlates with various hierarchy-enhancing attitudes, .32 /C0.47 in a meta-analysis ( Lee et al., 2011 ).
Besides predicting theoretically relevant attitudes, SDO converges with other enduring status-maintaining ideolo-
gies. For example, social dominance orientation, Protestant work ethic (PWE), just world beliefs, and right-wing
authoritarianism (RWA) all correlate ( Christopher, Zabel, Jones, & Marek, 2008 ), but each specializes. Most rele-
vant here, SDO converges with PWE on the centrality of work and the rejection of leisure. Just-world beliefs and
SDO also play similar roles in moderating the system-justifying, hierarchy-enhancing belief that higher-status
people are simply more competent than lower-status people ( Oldmeadow & Fiske, 2007 ).
Divergent/Discriminant
The measures most often compared with SDO are RWA and conservatism. RWA and SDO both predict ethnic
prejudices, but SDO focuses on group hierarchies relevant to resource competition, while RWA focuses on group
conflict over values. RWA focuses more on PWE values, morality, and self-reliance ( Christopher et al., 2008 ).
RWA derives from the earlier work on authoritarianism ( Christie, 1991 ) but focuses on hierarchy-enhancing
values for subordinate submission, authoritarian aggression, and conventionalism ( Altemeyer, 1988 ). RWA subor-
dinates the individual to strongly-identified group membership, demanding group cohesion, under value-threat
from other groups ( Duckitt, 1992 ), while SDO endorses group-level resource inequality and superiority. The com-
bination of high SDO and high RWA predicts support for armed anti-government militias ( Altemeyer, 2004 ).
Political conservatism correlates with SDO (.27 median racross eight samples, range .11 /C0.72), but controlling
for conservatism does not eliminate correlations between SDO and hierarchy-enhancing attitudes, which hover
around .30 across issues and samples ( Pratto et al., 1994 ). SDO’s correlations with conservatism (.30) and racism
(.47) explain their persistent correlation with each other; r5.29 drops to /C0.05, controlling for SDO; Sidanius,
Pratto, & Bobo, 1996 ). These links undermine the principled conservatism account of prejudice.
Gender differences in SDO distinguish between group-motivated dominance (men) and equality-motivated
orientations (women) (see below), catalyzing subfactors, SDO-D and SDO-E ( Ho et al., 2012 ).
Social dominance theory predicts that hegemonic groups will support and subordinated groups will resist
group hierarchies. The most consistent finding has been a gender gap, with men supporting group-based hierar-
chy more than women do ( Lee et al., 2011 ). In the original work, SDO’s modal correlation with gender hovered
about .30 ( Pratto et al., 1994 ). As the higher-status gender, men might reasonably want to maintain that arrange-
ment. Men’s higher average SDO explains gender differences in more specific attitudes toward social compas-
sion, women’s and gay/lesbian rights, and the military ( Pratto, Stallworth, & Sidanius, 1997 ). Although men
show more support for conservatism and group-based dominance, their SDO best predicts their under-endorsing
women’s rights ( Eagly, Diekman, Johannesen-Schmidt, & Koenig, 2004 ). Men endorse equality in general less
than women do, consistent with their higher SDO. Men’s SDO itself is moderated by how intensely they identify
with their gender ( Dambrun, Duarte, & Guimond, 2004 ). SDO justifies the system for the high-status gender by
decreasing their ambivalence, but SDO has the opposite effect for women, the lower-status gender ( Jost &
Burgess, 2000 ).
Whites, who are high-status among ethnicities, likewise score higher on SDO, tolerate inequality, endorse
hierarchy-maintaining ideologies, and are more conservative than Blacks ( Davis, 2005; Fang, Sidanius, & Pratto,
1998; Sidanius, Levin, Federico, & Pratto, 2001 ). Income and status also correlate positively with SDO and conser-
vative ideologies (e.g., meta-analysis of various dominant-subordinate societal groups reports d5.15,Lee et al.,
2011 ; cf. Sidanius & Pratto, 1999 ). Higher-status groups naturally support their own legitimacy. The belief that
‘people generally deserve what they get’ fits both just world theory (i.e., outcomes are fair; Lerner & Miller, 1978 )
and social dominance theory (i.e., hierarchies are inevitable and desirable; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999 ).686 24. MEASURES OF STEREOTYPING AND PREJUDICE: BAROMETERS OF BIAS
VI. SOCIOCULTURAL INTERACTION AND CONFLICT