Personality to Prejudice: Testing Ideological Pathways in the Association Between Psychological Entitlement and Ambivalent Sexism

Date of Award

8-15-2026

Degree Name

M.A. in Experimental Psychology

Department

Department of Psychology

Advisor/Chair

Erin O'Mara Kunz

Abstract

Sexist attitudes remain widespread and consequential, and research has linked them to psychological entitlement, social dominance orientation (SDO), and right-wing authoritarianism (RWA). However, these constructs have typically been examined in isolation rather than as an integrated pathway from personality to prejudice. Guided by ambivalent sexism theory and the dual-process model of prejudice, the current study tested whether SDO and RWA mediated the associations between psychological entitlement and hostile and benevolent sexism, and whether gender moderated these pathways. Undergraduate students (n = 192) completed measures of psychological entitlement, SDO, RWA, and hostile and benevolent sexism, and hypotheses were tested using PROCESS moderation and parallel mediation models, controlling for the alternate sexism subscale in models predicting sexism. Contrary to hypotheses, gender did not moderate the association between entitlement and either sexism subscale, nor between entitlement and either mediator, and was therefore removed from the model. The results indicated that SDO mediated the association between entitlement and hostile sexism, whereas RWA did not mediate either association, as entitlement was not significantly associated with RWA. Entitlement also retained a significant direct effect on benevolent sexism that was not accounted for by either mediator. These findings position SDO as the ideological mechanism linking entitlement to hostile sexism and suggest that entitlement's association with sexism may operate more consistently across gender than prior research indicates. Future research should examine broader personality constructs and more gender-balanced samples.

Keywords

Experimental Psychology, Gender, Personality Psychology, Social Psychology

Rights Statement

Copyright 2026, author

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