The march of modern fascism. A comparison of social dominance orientation and authoritarianism

In the present study, we tried to identify variables that are differently related to social dominance orientation (SDO) and authoritarianism. A strong positive relationship between SDO and authoritarianism was found and both variables showed strong positive correlations with racism. Nevertheless, results support the idea that SDO and authoritarianism refer to different kinds of dispositional prejudice. Authoritarianism, when statistically corrected for SDO, was negatively associated with level of education, moral competence, relativism, and the values hedonism, stimulation and self-direction, whereas positive correlations with age, cultural conservatism, orthodoxy, and the values tradition, conformity and security were registered. In contrast, SDO, when corrected for authoritarianism, was negatively associated with age, second naiveté and the values universalism, benevolence and tradition, whereas economic conservatism, external critique, and the values power, achievement, hedonism and stimulation showed positive relationships. It is argued that SDO represents a more modern kind of prejudice than authoritarianism.