From Social Dominance Orientation to Political Engagement: The Role of Group Status and Shared Beliefs in Politics Across Multiple Contexts. Issue 1 (20th March 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Prati, Francesca; Pratto, Felicia; Zeineddine, Fouad; Sweetman, Joseph; Aiello, Antonio; Petrović, Nebojša; Rubini, Monica
• Is Part Of: Political psychology. Volume 43:Issue 1(2022)
• Page Start: 153
• Page End: 175
• Publication Date: 2021-03-20
• Subjects: social dominance -- political engagement -- political corruption -- political self‐efficacy -- fairness -- legitimizing myths -- intergroup relations; Political psychology -- Periodicals; Political sociology -- Periodicals; 320.019
• DOI: 10.1111/pops.12745
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0162-895X

Abstract

Abstract : In three surveys of adults in five nations, we investigated how shared beliefs about the political system motivate individuals' political engagement. Specifically, we tested whether individuals' beliefs that the political context is fair, noncorrupt, and their belief that they could influence politics motivates political engagement to a higher extent for higher‐ compared to lower‐status group members. In a novel use of social dominance theory, we theoretically conceived of these political beliefs as legitimizing ideologies, so that we predicted that people with higher social dominance orientation endorse these beliefs, which in turn enhance the motivation to engage in politics to support current social hierarchical systems. Moreover, we expected that these relationships would be stronger for higher‐ compared to lower‐status groups. These hypotheses were tested considering different levels of group status: wealth status within a country (Study 1), political‐regional differences within a country (Study 2), and international status (i.e., between countries; Study 3), and they were largely supported.