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Social dominance orientation (SDO) is defined as the individual disposition to accept hierarchy and dominance among groups. The measurement of SDO has evolved accordingly with the development of the theory, providing several versions of this scale. This scale has demonstrated indicators of reliability and validity across contexts, but it also has some limitations related to potential ambiguities and the phrasing of items. In this article we present the adaptation and validation of the SDO7 scale in Spanish for the Colombian context, where some of these limitations are addressed. In 2 studies conducted with conventional samples (nStudy1 = 394; nStudy2 = 867), we provide evidence for the psychometric properties of the scale and the predictive validity of its dimensions on social/political attitudes within the Colombian context. Factor analyses confirmed the factorial structure of two substantive dimensions of SDO (dominance and anti- egalitarianism). Regression analyses suggested that both dimensions, dominance and anti-egalitarianism, were accordingly associated with different attitudes that justify inequality: Dominance was associated with more explicit and hostile attitudes, whereas anti-egalitarianism was linked to subtler measures that maintain inequality. This article contributes to the comprehension of one of the processes related to the legitimacy of inequality and to the development of tools for its empirical research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyzed the effect of social threat, produced through a manipulation of socioeconomic status, on Social Dominance Orientation (SDO). A sample of middle/middle-high class students attending a private university in Lima, Peru (n = 58) was randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: increased versus reduced socioeconomic status. The experimental manipulation consisted in exposing the participants to a pyramid which describes the structure of society in terms of socioeconomic status and privilege, and then asking them to complete a short semantic task about what their life would be like if their life circumstances placed them at the top or the bottom of the social pyramid (according to the randomly assigned experimental condition). Subsequently, they were asked to complete the SDO scale. The ANOVA results show an increase in SDO levels in the reduced/lower status condition, with this measure remaining unaffected in the increased/higher status condition. These results are consistent with the idea that SDO is susceptible to modification by manipulating people's socioeconomic status. Likewise, the increase in SDO in the low-status condition supports the idea that, in hierarchical and unequal societies such as Peru, the mere representation of a threat (a decrease in status in this case) can trigger a defensive response, anchored in the adherence to ideologies that reinforce differences in status between individuals and groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]