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Social Dominance Orientation Predicts Heterosexual Men’s Adverse Reactions to Romantic Rejection

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Abstract

We examined the role of social dominance orientation (SDO) as a predictor of men’s reactions to romantic rejection and attitudes toward female sexuality. In Study 1 (n = 158), we found that men who scored higher in SDO were more likely to blame women for romantic rejection, and report having responded to women’s past rejection with persistence and manipulation (e.g., convincing her to “give him another chance”), as well as with aggression and threats of violence. In Study 2 (n = 398), we replicated these findings, and further found that men higher in SDO were more likely to endorse rape myths (e.g., believing that sometimes a woman’s barriers need to be “broken down” in order to attain sex), and to want to lower the legal age of sexual consent in women. Two mediators explained this relationship, hostile sexism and the belief that insubordinate women need to be disciplined. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The authors wish to acknowledge Carol Ha for assistance with data collection and Helena R. M. Radke, William von Hippel, and Brendan P. Zietsch for comments on earlier drafts of this article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, 4072, Australia

    Ashleigh J. Kelly, Shelli L. Dubbs & Fiona Kate Barlow

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  1. Ashleigh J. Kelly
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  2. Shelli L. Dubbs
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  3. Fiona Kate Barlow
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ashleigh J. Kelly.

Appendix A

Appendix A

The SDO Scale (Pratto et al., 1994)

  1. (1)

    Some groups of people are simply not the equals of others.

  2. (2)

    Some people are just more worthy than others.

  3. (3)

    This country would be better off if we cared less about how equal all people were.

  4. (4)

    Some people are just more deserving than others.

  5. (5)

    It is not a problem if some people have more of a chance in life than others.

  6. (6)

    Some people are just inferior to others.

  7. (7)

    To get ahead in life, it is sometimes necessary to step on others.

  8. (8)

    Increased economic equality.

  9. (9)

    Increased social equality.

  10. (10)

    Equality.

  11. (11)

    If people were treated more equally we would have fewer problems in this country.

  12. (12)

    In an ideal world, all nations would be equal.

  13. (13)

    All humans should be treated equally.

  14. (14)

    It is important that we treat other countries as equals.

This scale was presented and coded as it was used by the authors who created it (Pratto et al., 1994). That is, “all items were measured on a very negative (1) to very positive (7) scale. Items 8–14 were reverse-coded… The order of items differed from above and across samples” (p. 760).

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Kelly, A.J., Dubbs, S.L. & Barlow, F.K. Social Dominance Orientation Predicts Heterosexual Men’s Adverse Reactions to Romantic Rejection. Arch Sex Behav 44, 903–919 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-014-0348-5

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