Perceived threats looming on SDG of peace and justice: Effects of investor’s identity, symbolic and economic threats on attitudes towards FDI

Abstract

Foreign investment has always been a polemic in Indonesia, facilitated by provocative undertones on several media outlets. However, how this information can influence people’s attitudes towards foreign investment has not been explored much. This research aimed to understand how foreign investment information from different countries could trigger threats and, consequently, influence people’s attitude toward foreign investment with the framework from Integrated Threat Theory and information processing. As much as 559 participants participated in an online experimental survey. They were randomly grouped into six experimental groups with 3 (investors cue: China, Saudi Arabia, US) x 2 (threat: symbolic, economic) and one control group. Mediation analysis showed exposure to threat laden information influenced the formation of negative attitudes towards foreign investment through systematic processing by activating economic and symbolic threat perceptions. This effect significantly appears on participants exposed by information containing the economic threat and symbolic threat from China, but not from Saudi Arabia and the US. This result indicates that support towards foreign investment is still heavily related to sentiment to Chinese ethnicity deeply rooted in Indonesia which can hinder the goals towards establishing peace, justice and strong institutions.