Wording Effect Leads to a Controversy over the Construct of the Social Dominance Orientation Scale

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most investigations of individuals’ social dominance orientation (SDO) have used the 16-item SDO scale developed by F. Pratto, J. Sidanius, L. M. Stallworth, and B. F. Malle (1994 Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M. and Malle, B. F. 1994. Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67: 741–763. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). The scale's authors believed it to be a unidimensional scale, but other researchers have found the scale has 2 or more factors. The present authors proposed a new hypothesis: The controversy of the scale structure was related to the wording effect of the scale. Based on a sample of Americans, Canadians, and Chinese, the present study indicated that what the scale measured was not only 1 trait of SDO, but also a negative-wording effect factor and that the scale structure was invariant across the 3 cultural groups. The existence of a wording effect reminds us to be cautious of the construct validity of the scale and interpretations of results.