People high in social dominance orientation show more racial bias in jury decisions

Evidence

One consistent finding in the literature is that people with high levels of social dominance orientation (SDO) (Pratto, Sidanius, & Levin, 2006) are more likely to exhibit racial bias. People high in SDO have a desire to justify systematic inequalities and espouse views which would maintain existing hierarchies. Protecting existing hierarchies might explain why prosecutors tend to score higher on measures of SDO than either defense attorneys or jurors (Sidanius, Liu, Shaw, & Pratto, 1994). Given the various ways in which minorities are disadvantaged in the CJS (e.g., Hunt, 2015), punishing minority defendants may be a mechanism to bolster existing hierarches (Sidanius et al., 1994). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 873