When and how Social Dominance predicts political engagement? Different motivations within the Italian context

There is a lot of evidence demonstrating a robust positive relationship between SDO and political conservative (vs. liberal) ideology. However, the question of how SDO affects political engagement has not been thoroughly researched. In the present research, we investigated the motivational processes that may explain the relationship between SDO and political engagement within the Italian context, considering the different socio-political situations of Northern and Southern Italians. Previous research on the stereotype content model found Northern Italians are perceived as more competent than Southern Italians, and Southern Italians are perceived as more warm than Northern Italians. Thus, we reason that the motivational factors that drive political engagement of Northern Italians should be related to maintaining their high perceived efficacy, whereas those of Southern Italians should be more concerned with interdependence processes such as perceived corruption. Evidence showed that for Northern Italians, perceived efficacy increased interest in politics which in turn explained the effect of SDO on political engagement. For Southern Italians, perceived corruption reduced interest in politics, which in turn explained the effect of SDO on reduced political engagement. These sequential mediation models were performed controlling for political identification. Implications of the present research will be discussed.