Accepting the other : the effects of social dominance orientation and power distance on cosmopolitanism

• Main Author: Kunalan Manokara
• Other Authors: Wan Ching
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/62592
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Cosmopolitanism, defined as peoples’ openness toward cultural diversity, is a crucial attitude to hold in lieu of a rapidly globalizing world. This paper focuses on two possible antecedents of cosmopolitanism, by examining the interaction between social dominance orientation (SDO) and perceived power distance in a culture (PPD) in predicting cosmopolitan attitudes. A between subject factorial design was employed, where SDO was measured as a continuous variable and PPD as a categorical variable through experimental manipulation. SDO, the extent to which an individual prefers hierarchical over egalitarian intergroup relations, was found to be negatively associated with cosmopolitanism. PPD, individuals’ perception of how unequally power is distributed in their culture, was also found to be negatively associated with cosmopolitanism. However, an interaction effect between SDO and PPD on cosmopolitanism was not found, suggesting that high SDO or high PPD alone was condition enough to elicit lowered openness toward cultural diversity. Theoretical reasons for such findings were discussed, including conceptual links between SDO, PPD and cosmopolitanism. The practical implications of these findings were elaborated; including the value cosmopolitanism research holds for cross-cultural communications in business and public policy.