A Dual‐Process Motivational Model of Social and Economic Policy Attitudes. Issue 1 (26th June 2013) - Perry, Ryan
Abstract The dual process model (DPM) of ideology and prejudice suggests that right‐wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) should differentially predict support for social versus economic policies. We test a differential prediction hypothesis in which support for social policies should be predicted by RWA, and support for economic policies should be predicted by SDO. We further test a dual mediation hypothesis suggesting that RWA and SDO differentially mediate the indirect effects of distinct combinations of personality traits and social worldviews on these policy attitudes. The hypothesized model provided a reasonable fit in a large New Zealand sample (N = 6, 886). Policy attitudes thus consist of at least two dimensions: social versus economic. Individual differences in these attitudes are differentially predicted by RWA and SDO—in much the same way as generalized intergroup attitudes and prejudice.