“Does this setting really fit with me?”: How support for group-based social hierarchies predicts a higher perceived misfit in hierarchy-attenuating settings

Abstract

The present study is aimed at testing if blatant support for group-based hierarchies (i.e., social dominance orientation-dominance [SDO-D]) was related to the level of future perceived person−environment (P−E) misfit when people meet an environment characterized by a culture that strongly supports antidominant values (i.e., hierarchy-attenuating organization). A total of 106 students of a social work faculty—a typical hierarchy-attenuating context—voluntarily participated and filled an anonymous questionnaire on two-time occasions in which we measured their SDO-D and their perceived P−E misfit. Although the SDO-D and P−E misfit levels were, on average, relatively low, a cross-lagged panel analysis revealed that SDO-D was positively associated with future levels of P−E misfit measured 6 months later, while no evidence of association was found for the opposite. The present study contributes to broadening the interweaving of social dominance theory and the P−E fit. It reveals that the more people support social hierarchies, the more they will experience a greater P−E misfit in a hierarchy-attenuating context. The misfit feeling appears to develop over time; it grows based on people's awareness of the hierarchy-attenuating functioning of the organization and is boosted by their SDO-D levels. The results also underline that the perceived P−E misfit does not influence future SDO-D levels, supporting the notion that SDO-D is a rather stable individual difference.