Male race bias peaks where aggression and dominance motives combine

Evidence

In an attempt to understand the male-specific psychology of prejudice, Navarrete et al. (2010) examined how individual differences in dominance motivations and aggressive formidability interact to predict race bias. The authors used a measure of SDO (Pratto et al., 1994) to assess one’s desire to dominate out-groups. Aggressive formidability was assessed using a measure of aggressive behavior (Buss & Perry, 1992). Results revealed a three-way interaction, such that, among men, explicit race bias was related to aggression most strongly when SDO was high. In other words, race bias was greatest among men with a history of aggressive behavior and greater social dominance motives. In contrast, the interaction of SDO and aggression did not predict increased race bias among women. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1266

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Male aggression is primary and explains competition, not vice versa. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 95