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from the what-y'all-love-social-sciences dept.
It's 2017. Why are there still Nazis?
It's a question many observers are asking after hundreds of white supremacists, many displaying swastikas and Confederate battle flags and shouting racist, anti-Semitic, and anti-communist slogans, took to the streets of Charlottesville, Va., this weekend, provoking violence that claimed the life of one counter-protester and resulted in multiple injuries.
The continued existence of people who hold openly white supremacist ideologies more than seven decades after the fall of the Third Reich can be explained, in part, through a social theory developed in the early 1990s. Social dominance theory seeks to explain how hierarchy-enhancing ideologies do not just drive social inequality, but are also a result of it. It suggests that a single personality trait, called social dominance orientation (SDO), strongly predicts a person's political and social views, from foreign policy and criminal justice to civil rights and the environment. What's more, it offers insight into how ideologies such as racism, sexism, and xenophobia tend to arise from the unequal distribution of a society's resources.
"Social dominance theory provides a yardstick for measuring social and political ideologies," says Felicia Pratto, who developed the theory with fellow psychologist Jim Sidanius. "SDO is one way – not the only one – to try to figure out what those ideologies are 'about.'"
You too can take the Social Dominance Orientation quiz to determine your nazi quotient.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2017, @01:36AM (3 children)
It was like the first time I was asked "does your mom know you are stupid?" It takes a second to figure out the question itself is trick the first time. I went through four of these just to see if they were all like that. Answering the question means you are ignorant, naive, or stupid (ie someone to be manipulated). Some people never get that, which is what this tests for I guess?
(Score: 2) by tfried on Monday September 18 2017, @06:15AM (2 children)
Hm, you seriously think a trick question could serve a purpose in a paper-and-pencil/online test? A forced choice one, too? Care to explain the algorithm for that?
Look, TFA is very much to blame for Godwin-ing the whole thing from the start. But that questionnaire still measures something. And for all I can see some folks, here, are actually surprised to find out their view on equality / hierarchy is not universally shared. Isn't that a start?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 18 2017, @12:11PM (1 child)
Psychology questionnaires often use misdirection so you do not guess the true purpose of the questions. In fact I would say the majority of them are like this. Have you never taken psych 101 where they make you be a subject for 3 "studies" to pass?
(Score: 2) by tfried on Monday September 18 2017, @01:29PM
I took enough psychology classes (and played lab rat to more than enough studies) to be able to google "social dominance orientation", and find out it is a well-established concept backed by some well-published scales (heck, you can even read up on it on wikipedia) designed to measure: social dominance orientation.