The Balanced Ideological Antipathy Model: Explaining the Effects of Ideological Attitudes on Intergroup Antipathy across the Political Spectrum

Abstract

Much extant research examines prejudice and intolerance on the political right, but ignores such antipathy on the political left. We introduce the balanced ideological antipathy (BIA) model, which challenges the assumption that right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO) linearly predict intergroup antipathy. Consistent with the BIA model, the Traditionalism component of RWA positively and negatively predicted prejudice against cohesion reducing and enhancing groups, respectively, whereas SDO positively and negatively predicted prejudice against hierarchy attenuating and enhancing groups, respectively. The Conservatism component of RWA positively predicted political intolerance toward all types of targets. Further, the effects of Traditionalism and SDO on political intolerance depended on the target’s political orientation.