“My Kind of Guy”: Social Dominance Orientation Predicts More Tolerance of a Job Candidate with a Racist Past

Social psychology would have us believe that racism, as captured by explicit prejudice and racial discrimination, is widely stigmatized in the contemporary United States. However, considering the hierarchy-enhancing nature of racism, it may be that stigmatization of EP is attenuated among perceivers high in anti-egalitarian sentiment. The reported studies support this proposition, suggest that candidates with a racist past were tolerated more and had relatively greater hireability ratings as a function of perceivers’ SDO (Studies 1-3). Candidate race did not matter in these evaluations – only the hierarchy relevance of their actions did (i.e., whether the candidate’s behavior was hierarchy enhancing, hierarchy attenuating, or had no clear implication for the hierarchy; Study 2). Furthermore, job candidates with an anti-racist past (e.g., those who work against racism) were tolerated less and had lower hireability ratings as a function of perceivers’ SDO (Study 3). Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.