Social dominance orientation as an obstacle to intergroup apology.

Nobuhiro Mifune,Atsushi Tago,Kazunori Inamasu,Yohsuke Ohtsubo,Shoko Kohama

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0211379

Abstract

Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) has engaged the interest of social and personality psychologists as it has deep implications for the psychology of intergroup conflict, particularly regarding factors such as prejudice and discrimination, as well as international conflict resolution. Nevertheless, few studies have directly assessed how SDO relates to intergroup reconciliation. This study (effective N = 819) measured participants’ SDO along with their attitudes toward various governmental apologies to test the hypothesis that SDO is associated with unwillingness to issue intergroup apologies. The results showed that SDO was negatively correlated with supportive attitudes toward government-issued international apologies. This negative correlation remained intact after controlling for the effects of political conservatism and militarism.

Highlights

Conflicts between various social categories and groups, such as nations, ethnic groups, and races, are widely observed in the contemporary world
The current study aims to fill this gap, testing whether social dominance orientation (SDO) is associated with unwillingness to issue an intergroup apology
This study demonstrated that SDO has a negative correlation with willingness to apologize in an intergroup context

Summary

Introduction

Conflicts between various social categories and groups, such as nations, ethnic groups, and races, are widely observed in the contemporary world. Social psychology tends to focus on situational factors [4, 5], there are studies that have identified individual differences that intensify intergroup conflict [6, 7, 8, 9]. SDO is correlated with negative views toward African Americans among Caucasian Americans [14], hostile sexism [15, 16], and negative attitudes toward immigrants among Canadians [17].

Methods

Results

Conclusion