Social Dominance Orientation, Language Orientation, and Deaf Identity

Abstract

The notion of the Deaf community as a linguistic-cultural minority has been increasingly recognized and studied over the last two decades. However, significant differences of opinion and perspective within that population typically have been neglected in the literature. Social dominance orientation (SDO), a theoretical construct, typically focusing on intergroup perceptions and relations, is one aspect that has been left unexplored and might prove particularly enlightening. The present study investigated SDO among 119 deaf and 49 hearing young adults through a standardized SDO questionnaire. SDO was examined with regard to cultural identities (deaf, hearing, bicultural, and marginal), cochlear implant use, and language orientation (sign language or spoken language). The deaf participants were found to be more egalitarian than hearing individuals overall. Deaf individuals who held the strongest deaf identities, those who were sign language oriented, and not cochlear implant users, were the most egalitarian.