Social Dominators

The title of this post is part of the title in the book by John W. Dean and Bob Altemeyer, titled Authoritarian Nightmare: Trump and His Followers. Altemeyer wrote in July 2016 that Trump’s followers would stick with him to the end and that he could win in November 2016 through the zeal of his supporters. His prediction was based on the accumulation of studies that as early as 1981 led to the conclusion that “there are so many people so genuinely submissive to established authority that they constitute a real threat to freedom in countries such as Canada and the United States. “

Donald Trump appears to have developed a faithful base of about 50 million supporters in 2015-2016. Most of them have one of the two authoritarian personalities that have been scientifically established, plus a unique group that combines these two: They are:

Social Dominators. People who believe in inequality between groups. Predictably, they usually believe their groups should be more prestigious and powerful than others. Some social dominators take the belief in equality down to the personal level and are determined to gain power over people they know. Donald Trump, who wants to dominate everyone he meets and the rest of humanity by proxy, appears to be an extreme example of a social dominator. There are other social dominators who are attracted to Donald Trump.

Authoritarian Followers. These people are submissive, fearful, and longing for a mighty leader who will protect them from life’s threats. They divide the world into friend and foe, with the latter greatly outnumbering the former. Their ethnocentrism (partiality to one’s own group) is often based on their religious training and they have been found to be self-righteous. Authoritarian followers have been studied for many decades and it will take much research to tie what we know about them to their passionate embrace of Donald Trump. This group includes the white evangelicals who support Trump more than anyone else—to the complete bewilderment of many. Reasons for their devotion will be discussed in a future post.

Double Highs. Some people score highly in both being a Social Dominator and being an Authoritarian Follower, which confuses one at first because it seems to make them dominating submissive. But this can happen in various ways. For example, dominating persons can strongly believe in other people submitting to the authorities if they themselves are the authorities, or allied with them. Donald Trump is a good example of such a Double High. He probably has not had a submissive inclination since his father died, but he obviously thinks other people should be submissive. Alternatively submissive people can come to endorse their group’s superiority over others to protect themselves further. Double Highs usually combine the worst elements of the two authoritarian personalities in such a dangerous way that they are especially worrisome and merit separate examination (which will be done in a subsequent post).

A Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) Scale for measuring this new personality has been developed. The current version of the test comes in two parts. One part asks for reactions to the idea that certain groups should dominate others. It has statements such as, “Some groups of people must be kept in their place,” and “It’s probably a good thing that certain groups are at the top and other groups are at the bottom.” The second part seeks responses to the idea that we should accept inequality between groups. For example “We should not push for group equality” and “We should’t try to guarantee that every group has the same quality of life.”

There are Power-Mad and Con Man Scales, which fit Donald Trump’s personality like a custom-made suit, that were developed shortly after the SDO scale appeared. They and other surveys have produced the following list of attitudes and behaviors that studies have shown that characterize a social dominator in general. The traits are:
men (typically), faintly hedonistic, oppose equality, pitiless, dominating, intimidating and bullying, amoral, vengeful, desire personal power, exploitive, manipulative, dishonest, cheat to win, highly prejudiced (racist, sexist, homophobic) mean-spirited, militant, nationalistic, tells others what they want to hear, takes advantage of suckers, specializes in creating false images to sell self, will pretend to be religious if they are not genuinely so, usually politically and economically conservative.

The chapter ends: Social dominators have found their authoritarian leader and we are witnessing the growing, unfolding of authoritarianism in the United States. It is not attractive. It has not been our past and should not be our future. But if Trump—or any authoritarian leader—holds a post as powerful and pervasive as the American presidency, it will be our present, our way in the world. This is the reason it is so important that Americans appreciate that authoritarianism is on the ballot in the 2020 election, not to mention for many elections that will follow.