Romance across the social status continuum: Interracial marriage and the ideological asymmetry effect

This study examined the asymmetrical relationship between attitudes toward interracial marriage and social dominance orientation across four ethnic groups in the United States. Differences in these correlations were explained with the ideological asymmetry hypothesis, a specific feature of social dominance theory, which asserts that the relationship between attitudes regarding hierarchy-maintaining social practices and antiegalitarian social values will be more positive among members of high-status groups than among members of low-status groups. Using opposition to interracial marriage and dating (i.e., antimiscegenation attitudes) as a case of a hierarchy-maintaining social attitude, the data were found to support the ideological asymmetry hypothesis. With almost no exceptions, the correlations between social dominance orientation and antimiscegenation attitudes were significantly more positive within a high-status ethnic group vis-à-vis a given low-status ethnic group than they were within a low-status ethnic group vis-à-vis a given high-status ethnic group. The theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.