Proximity Under Threat: Understanding the Role of Physical Distance in Intergroup Relations

Abstract

Throughout human history, social groups have invested immense amounts of wealth and time to keep threatening out-groups at a distance. In the current research, we explore the relationship between intergroup threat, physical distance, and discrimination. Specifically, we examine how intergroup threat alters estimates of physical distance to out-groups and how physical proximity, in turn, affects intergroup relations. In Study 1, highly identified Americans who perceived that another country threatened America’s ranking in the Olympic Games gold medal count estimated a threatening country (China), but not a non-threatening one (New Zealand), to be physically closer. In Studies 2 and 3, we examined ways to attenuate this bias. In Study 2 a secure (vs. permeable) US-Mexico border reduced the estimated proximity to Mexico City among Americans who felt threatened by Mexican immigration. In Study 3, intergroup apologies reduced estimates of physical proximity to a threatening cross-town rival university, but only among participants with cross-group friendships. In Study 4, New York Yankees fans who received an experimental induction of physical proximity to a threatening out-group (Boston Red Sox) had a stronger relationship between their collective identification with the New York Yankees and support for discriminatory policies toward members of the out-group (Red Sox fans). Together, these studies suggest that intergroup threat alters judgment of physical properties, which has important implications for intergroup relations.