Abstract

The present study examined the relationship among Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and attitudes toward unification of Korea (unification attitudes) in predicting individuals’ support for the government’s unification policy (policy support). SDO and RWA represent generalized social beliefs that reflect support for the hierarchical social structure and resistance to social change, respectively. From the standpoint that unification of the two Koreas will necessarily involve a threat to the existing intergroup status hierarchy and changes in the current Korean society, we expected that the two social beliefs would be negatively related to unification attitudes and policy support. To specify the nature of the relationship between social beliefs and unification attitudes in predicting individuals’ policy support, we explored path models involving a moderation and a mediation between the predictor variables. Results from a survey involving a stratified sample of Korean adults (N = 1,500) revealed that SDO, RWA, and unification attitudes independently predict policy support, with unification attitudes as the strongest predictor. Also, the relationship between unification attitudes and policy support was not moderated by either SDO or RWA. Further, unification attitudes mediated the relationship between SDO and policy support, suggesting that in the context of the two Koreas, individuals’ generalized beliefs about society predict indirectly their political behavior via specific attitudes toward unification. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our findings and future directions for research.