Responses to intergroup helping: Effects of perceived stability and legitimacy of intergroup relations on Israeli Arabs’ reactions to assistance by Israeli Jews

Abstract

The current research builds on work on social identity and helping and extends the Intergroup Helping as Status Relations Model theoretically and empirically by identifying the social structural conditions that moderate responses to intergroup assistance. Specifically, the study tested the hypothesis that Israeli-Arab participants would view help from an Israeli Jew more negatively when they perceived the status relations between the two groups as less stable and legitimate. As predicted, greater perceptions of the instability of status relations between the groups were related to less positive perceptions of assistance by an Israeli Jew as promoting positive intergroup relations, and that perceptions of illegitimacy exacerbated negative reactions when intergroup relations were seen as unstable. Practically, the finding that helping may be construed in different ways – more positively or negatively – depending on perceptions of the structural relations between groups has valuable implications for understanding and ameliorating conflict.