Social structural position and prejudice: an exploration of cross-national differences in regression slopes

Abstract

Group-threat theorists suggest that increases in the collective threat posed to dominant ethnic and racial groups increase average levels of prejudice and intensify the relationships between individual characteristics and prejudice. However, group-threat theorists focus attention more on differences in the average levels of prejudice across geographic regions and/or time than on differences in the relationships between individual characteristics and prejudice. The purpose of this article is to explore in greater detail possible differences in these relationships—that is, to identify the conditions that intensify or even dampen the relationships between individual characteristics and prejudice. I use relative group size and economic conditions—as suggested by theories of prejudice—to explain variation in the effects of three social structural variables on prejudice (labor market position, education, and income). I use hierarchical linear modeling to analyze multi-level data from 17 East and West European countries. Results indicate that the effects of labor market position, education, and income differ across countries and that the effects are weaker in Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe, largely because of poor economic conditions. There is some support for group-threat theory in that the effect of student status is stronger in countries with larger immigrant populations. However, in opposition to group-threat theory, countries with poor economic conditions have weaker relationships between the social structural variables and prejudice. Thus, results suggest a revision of group-threat theory—indicators of group-threat have different effects on the relationships between individual characteristics and prejudice.