The superposition principle states that the angle-dependent difference in scattering intensities for right and left circularly polarized light, for chiral structures composed of various hierarchical levels, is the sum of the contributions from each level taken separately. Analytic expressions describing this superposition are obtained for oriented and rotationally averaged hierarchical chiral structures. It is shown that the superposition principle holds only when the coiling levels in the chiral structure are disparate. In particular, for a structure composed of two chiral levels, the lower order structure must be much smaller than both the wavelength of light and the higher order structure. Numerical calculations using these expressions are carried out for superhelices of varying dimensions. © 1990 American Institute of Physics.