Relation between social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism: moderating effect of political interest

DELFINO, G.

San Antonio

Congreso; 41th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society of Political Psychology (ISPP); 2018

International Society of Political Psychology

Different studies carried out in Italy (e.g. Dallago, Cima, Roccato, Ricolfi & Mirisola, 2008; Leone, Desimoni & Chirombulo, 2012; Leone, Chirombulo & Desimoni, 2012) show that the relation between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) is moderated by politcal interest. We test this idea based on a convenience sample (n = 259) from Buenos Aires, Argentina. We state that RWA (Etchezahar, 2012) and SDO (Ho et al., 2015) would be more strongly associated with higher political interest (Rodriguez, Sabucedo & Costa, 1993). Using model 1 of Hayes´(2012) macro PROCESS we analyzed the correlation between RWA and SDO, exploring the moderating effect exerted on such correlation by political interest. RWA and SDO showed a moderate and significant bivariate correlation (r = .40), moderated by political interest. When political interest is very low and subject declare not being interested in politics at all, such a relation is not significant (β = .09; p = .39; IC= -.09, .27). On the other hand, when political interest is high the association is stronger (r = .67; β = .46; p < .01; IC= .23, .68). Results highlight the importance of taking in account political interest when analyzing SDO-RWA relationship. Probably the relation of both SDO and RWA and political behavior is also moderated by political interest. More studies are needed in order to confirm the moderation effect of political interest on SDO-RWA relationship and its influence on political behavior.