November, 4 1999

Social dominance theories identifies three distinct, yet interrelated systems of group-based social hierarchy. These systems are based upon the distinctions of: a) age, b) gender and c) what we call "arbitrary sets." Arbitrary sets are highly flexible and situationally contingent social constructions of group membership. Examples of such arbitrary sets are distinctions based on citizenship, social class, "race," ethnicity, clan, lineage, caste, region, etc. Using survey, archival and experimental data dealing with both gender and ethnic discrimination across several cultures, and framing this data in terms of ideas taken from evolutionary psychology, this talk will argue that:

1. While gender and ethnic discrimination share a number of features in common, these social phenomenon are driven by qualitatively different motives and serve distinctly different social functions.
2. The psychology of gender is incomplete without the inclusion of the psychology of arbitrary-set hierarchy, specifically regarding invariant gender differences with respect to the predisposition to establish and maintain group-based social hierarchy. Likewise, a complete understanding of the psychology of arbitrary-set discrimination is incomplete without an understanding of the "gendered" nature of ethnic and racial discrimination.
3. The very popular "double-jeopardy" hypothesis argues that women of color suffer from a double handicap and are discriminated against on the basis of both their gender and their ethnicity. However, this paper argues that this popular thesis is fundamentally flawed. In its place, we substitute the "subordinate-male-target hypothesis" (SMTH). SMTH argues that while women from both dominant and subordinate arbitrary groups (e.g., different "races") are discriminated against on the basis of gender, women from subordinate arbitrary-set groups are generally not directly discriminated against on the basis of their arbitrary group membership (e.g., on the basis of "race"). Rather, arbitrary-set discrimination (e.g., racial discrimination) is primarily directed against males from subordinate arbitrary-sets. More broadly, social dominance theory suggests that arbitrary-set discrimination should be regarded as a form of intergroup conflict and largely male-on-male project. Such conflict is primarily executed by males and primarily targeted against "outgroup" males rather than "outgroup" females.