Social dominance orientation moderates reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants

• SDO predicts increased positivity toward White discrimination claimants.
• SDO predicts increased negativity toward Black discrimination claimants.
• These effects are moderated by perceived stability of racial inequality.
• This work suggests that White discrimination claims can be hierarchy enhancing.
• By contrast, Black discrimination claims are potentially hierarchy attenuating.

We suggest that because racial discrimination claims made by Blacks potentially challenge the legitimacy of racial inequality, whereas racial discrimination claims made by Whites potentially reinforce the legitimacy of racial inequality, social dominance orientation (SDO) may differentially predict reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants. Consistent with this idea, Studies 1 and 2 suggest that negativity toward Blacks who make discrimination claims increases as a function of participants' SDO, while SDO predicts increased positivity toward Whites who make discrimination claims. Moreover, Study 3 demonstrates that differential reactions to White discrimination claimants as a function of SDO are particularly likely to occur when racial inequality is thought to be unstable; when racial inequality is thought to be stable, SDO does not predict positive reactions to White discrimination claimants. In all, the reported studies provide evidence for the idea that reactions to Black and White discrimination claimants may serve a role in respectively challenging or reinforcing racial inequality.