Authoritarianism and social dominance in Western and Eastern Europe: The importance of the sociopolitical context and of political interest and involvement

The present study tests (1) whether the magnitude of the relation between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) is stable across and within cultures, (2) whether their differential relations with value orientations and socio-political attitudes remain stable in spite of these possible differences, and (3) whether their differential relations point to a different genesis. For these purposes, two student samples (total N = 684), three adult samples (total N = 553) and a political activist sample (N = 69) were gathered in Belgium and one adult sample (N = 235) was collected in Poland. Both cross- and intra-cultural differences in the strength of the RWA-SDO relation emerged. These can be attributed to specificities in socio-political context and differences in political socialization, interest and involvement. In spite of these fluctuations in the strength of the RWA-SDO relation, regression analyses revealed high stability of the relation between RWA-SDO and socio-political attitudes, and mediation analyses supported the hypothesis of their different genesis.