RESEARCH PAPER
Social dominance orientation predicts lower moral condemnation of causing harm to animals
| 1 | Institute of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Toruń, Poland |
| 2 | Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland |
Submission date: 2020-11-25
Final revision date: 2021-03-06
Acceptance date: 2021-03-22
Online publication date: 2021-05-03
Publication date: 2021-07-19
Current Issues in Personality Psychology 2021;9(3):229–236
KEYWORDS
social dominance orientationhuman-animal relationsanimal exploitationspeciesismmoral judgmentsmoral judgment
TOPICS
ABSTRACT
Background:
Recent studies and theorizing (SD-HARM model) suggested that social dominance orientation (SDO) constitutes the ideological foundation of negative attitude towards animals and acceptance of their exploitation. At the same time, right-wing authoritarian-ism (RWA) is expected to predict speciesist beliefs only when they are perceived as part of societal tradition. The present studies investigated these predictions with moral condemnation of harm done to animals by humans as an indicator of speciesism.
Participants and procedure:
400 and 324 people, aged 18-87, took part in two cross-sectional studies. They reported their levels of SDO and RWA and made moral judgments of harm done to animals.
Results:
In both studies, SDO, but not RWA, negatively predicted moral condemnation of harming animals.
Conclusions:
The results offer additional support for the SD-HARM model. The more people accept SDO beliefs, the less they morally con-demn harm done to animals by humans.
Recent studies and theorizing (SD-HARM model) suggested that social dominance orientation (SDO) constitutes the ideological foundation of negative attitude towards animals and acceptance of their exploitation. At the same time, right-wing authoritarian-ism (RWA) is expected to predict speciesist beliefs only when they are perceived as part of societal tradition. The present studies investigated these predictions with moral condemnation of harm done to animals by humans as an indicator of speciesism.
Participants and procedure:
400 and 324 people, aged 18-87, took part in two cross-sectional studies. They reported their levels of SDO and RWA and made moral judgments of harm done to animals.
Results:
In both studies, SDO, but not RWA, negatively predicted moral condemnation of harming animals.
Conclusions:
The results offer additional support for the SD-HARM model. The more people accept SDO beliefs, the less they morally con-demn harm done to animals by humans.
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