Abstract
This research studies the relationship between ethnocentrism and Muslim stereotypes in Spain. Stereotypes are defined as positive or negative orientations related to attributes associated with an image of Muslims. After considering the application of a latent variable or a cumulative scale, we chose the latter in order to minimize the effect of missing values. The two strategies (that measure positive or negative stereotypes) are consistent with each other and express complementary measurements. By specifying and adjusting a structural model, we established an empirical relationship between ethnocentrism and stereotypes, controlling for the effect of gender, age, education, income, political ideology, and habitat size. We conclude that there is a direct effect of age and educational level as explanatory variables of ethnocentric feeling, as well as gender, ideological position and habitat size with respect to the presence of positive stereotypes.
Highlights
Stereotypes are frequently used in daily life
Ethnocentric can be understood as “everything relating to ethnicity, and to psychosocial identification” (Fierro,1987: 158). This perspective considers that ethnocentrism has its foundations in a psychological attitude that emerges among individuals when they are in unexpected situations, and which consists of rejecting cultural forms for being different or remote from other, closer forms with which they identify (Aguilera, 2002)
It is not easy to find accessible data that offer the possibility of empirically measuring theoretical concepts such as ethnocentrism, together with the possibility of evaluating stereotypes
Summary
Stereotypes are frequently used in daily life. According to previous studies Ethnocentric can be understood as “everything relating to ethnicity (a highly disputed concept), and to psychosocial identification” (Fierro,1987: 158) This perspective considers that ethnocentrism has its foundations in a psychological attitude that emerges among individuals when they are in unexpected situations, and which consists of rejecting cultural forms (traditions, uses, norms...) for being different or remote from other, closer forms with which they identify (Aguilera, 2002). Ethnocentrism is a starting point (by means of the definition of intragroup) for the exclusion of groups that are considered to be different For this reason, the empirical relationship between ethnocentrism and xenophobia (Alaminos et al, 2005) and/or racism is consistent and permanent from a comparative research perspective. As Pureza (2002:2) summaries: “Ethnocentrism is the inability to look at the world in the eyes of others”
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