Intergroup Ideology and Environmental Inequality

Abstract

Three studies showed that social dominance orientation could contribute to environmental inequality through its association with environmental and economic ideologies, pursuit of ingroup interest, and relative indifference toward groups with low economic standing. Study 1 showed that social dominance orientation is correlated with a lack of concern for the natural environment and with the endorsement of free‐market ideology. In Study 2, people higher in social dominance orientation endorsed a polluting industry that hurt a foreign population when the industry benefited their ingroup. Study 3 demonstrated that, given a choice of locations to site an environmentally problematic industry, people higher in social dominance orientation chose to direct the dangerous environmental footprint toward economically vulnerable foreign populations, and this was because of their relative lack of concern for human justice.