The Association between Social Dominance Orientation, Critical Consciousness, and Gender Minority Stigma

ABSTRACT

Transgender people are exposed to great amounts of discrimination and violence, but research has yet to fully understand what drives stigma towards this community. In this study, we hypothesized that social dominance orientation would be associated with greater gender minority stigma (i.e., stigmatizing views of transgender people), with this association mediated by higher levels of trait aggression and lower levels of critical consciousness. Data were collected online from 254 cisgender individuals (158 women, 96 men; M age = 30.81 years). Social dominance orientation was associated with higher levels of gender minority stigma. Trait aggression was not a significant mediator of this association. However, there was a significant indirect effect via lowered critical consciousness (B = 0.10, SE = 0.04, 95% CI: 0.02, 0.17). Approaches that increase awareness about social hierarchies and systems of privilege will likely prove fruitful in facilitating social change in attitudes towards transgender people.

KEYWORDS:

• Social dominance orientation
• trait aggression
• critical consciousness
• gender minority stigma
• transgender prejudice