RWA and SDO are the two strongest independent predictors of prejudice.

Evidence

The SDO scale powerfully predicts a range of sociopolitical and intergroup phenomena similar to those predicted by the RWA scale. Nevertheless, the two scales are relatively independent (nonsignificantly or only weakly correlated) and predict prejudice independently of each other (Altemeyer, 1998; McFarland, 1998; Pratto et al., 1994). Moreover, studies using a large number of individual-difference variables (i.e., personality, cognitive style, or social values and attitudes) to simultaneously predict prejudice found that both RWA and SDO were powerful predictors of prejudice when all other variables were controlled, and no other psychological variables were able to explain materially significant variance in generalized prejudice once RWA and SDO were controlled (Altemeyer, 1998; McFarland, 1998; McFarland & Adelson, 1996). Thus, RWA and SDO appear to be the strongest individual-difference predictors of prejudice. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 2459

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Connects to Milgram’s law-merchant work on independent institutional drivers, and to earlier Allport material on dispositional vs situational explanations of prejudice.

Related

• Right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation are the strongest individual-difference predictors of prejudice. (similarity 0.93)
• SDO and RWA jointly explain half of overall prejudice variance (similarity 0.86)
• SDO predicts generalized prejudice while RWA predicts religion-based prejudice (similarity 0.85)
• Personality and social situation affect prejudice only through ideological worldviews. (similarity 0.85)
• Individual and intergroup theories of prejudice may share underlying motivational mechanisms. (similarity 0.84)
• RWA and SDO each predict prejudice only toward groups matching their specific motivational trigger (similarity 0.84)
• Prejudice stems from distinct threat and competition motives (similarity 0.84)
• SDO and RWA predict prejudice through distinct threat perceptions (similarity 0.83)
• Social dominance orientation explains most prejudice and resolves prior RWA findings (similarity 0.83)
• Social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism together explain half of all prejudice (similarity 0.82)
• Right-wing authoritarians fail to recognize their own prejudice while social dominators partly do. (similarity 0.82)
• Individual-difference and intergroup approaches to prejudice have remained disconnected since Allport. (similarity 0.82)
• Authoritarianism and social dominance target different outgroups (similarity 0.81)
• Social dominance and authoritarianism jointly predict a large share of prejudice variance. (similarity 0.81)
• Prejudice varies with context yet remains predictable from role requirements. (similarity 0.80)