Shedding light on social dominance within the affective neuroscience personality scales

Abstract In the present paper we present psychometric properties on a Social Dominance scale from items which are embedded in the Affective Neuroscience Personality Scales 3.1. In two samples we show that psychometrics of the Social Dominance scale are sufficient and that correlations with scales measuring Panksepp’s primary emotional systems fail to consistently reach statistical significance with the exception of associations with ANGER (moderate effect size), SEEKING and CARE (small effect sizes). No associations with satisfaction with life and only small negative associations with Spirituality could be observed. We concur with Panksepp that Social Dominance is not a primary emotion but is a learned secondary emotion involving several primary emotions. We show evidence that Social Dominance is not the same as ANGER. We also briefly review mammalian (including humans) evidence that supports the view that Social Dominance is learned and also that the ANGER, SEEKING, and CARE primary mammalian emotions contribute to the learning of Social Dominance.