Cultural Threat Research Articles

Diversifying neighborhoods and schools engender perceptions of foreign cultural threat among White Americans.

A nationally representative survey (N = 2,213) and five experiments (four preregistered, total N = 1,920) revealed that Whites perceived a foreign cultural threat, or a threat to their American culture and way of life, from the projected growth of racial and ethnic minority populations in their majority-White neighborhoods (Studies 1-5) and schools (Study 6). Whites perceived the increasing presence of Arab Americans, Latinos, and Asian Americans to pose an especially strong degree of perceived foreign cultural threat relative to Black Americans, who were perceived as more threatening than no demographic change. Furthermore, perceptions of foreign cultural threat predicted Whites' desires to move out above and beyond other established intergroup threats (e.g., realistic and symbolic threats). These findings highlight how Whites' concerns about losing their American culture and way of life as racial and ethnic minority groups enter majority-White neighborhoods and schools may contribute to the maintenance of racial segregation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The conditional relationship between cultural and economic threats in white Americans’ support for refugee relocation programs

AbstractObjectiveScholars have reached conflicting results as to the relative importance of cultural and economic threats to majority group receptivity to immigrants and refugees. This study seeks to test whether cultural or economic threat has a stronger influence on white Americans’ receptivity to Syrian refugees.MethodWe designed a 2 × 2 priming experiment fielded among white Americans in 2015 that varies both the religion of Syrian refugees to be admitted to the United States (Christian vs. Muslim) and the material costs of refugee admission (economic burden vs. no economic burden).ResultsThe results show that cultural threat (Muslim religion) is not by itself sufficient to induce a decline in receptivity among white Americans. Instead, it is the combination of cultural and economic threats that leads to lower levels of refugee acceptance.ConclusionCultural threat, especially when it comes to religious “others,” may not operate alone but in conjunction with material fears.

Ethnic minority, immigrants, and Indigenous people’s well-being disparities in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic: The mediating role of threat perceptions

The COVID-19 pandemic's differential impact on ethnic minorities, immigrants, and Indigenous people (e.g., mortality and infection rate, as well as psychological well-being) may exacerbate existing disparities. This study examined perceived threat as a psychological mechanism to explain the apparently more negative emotional experiences of ethnic minority Canadians during the pandemic compared with non-immigrant European Canadians (i.e., the majority/mainstream ethno-cultural group). We investigated group differences in negative affect and three possible threat mechanisms (perceived health, material, and cultural threat) for these differences using an online survey completed by a self-selected Canadian sample (N = 1,918). The results suggest that compared to the non-immigrant European Canadian group, ethnic minority members, immigrants, and Indigenous people have on average perceived higher levels of pandemic threat, which in turn is associated with negative affect. These findings support the hypothesis that the amount of threat perceived by different groups during the pandemic might partially explain reported group differences in well-being.

Multidimensional attitudes: Homonationalist and selective tolerance toward homosexuality and Muslim migration across 21 Countries

Attitudinal studies illustrate high levels of support toward homosexuality across European countries. Although these patterns suggest that European societies are becoming more progressive and tolerant, they do not extend to Muslim migration. As Western conceptions of liberalism are increasingly defined in terms of tolerance of sexual minorities as a marker of societal progress, persistent anti-Muslim sentiment presents a liberalism paradox. Existing research often explores these two social topics independently, with limited attention to their intersection. Moving beyond this unidimensional lens, we draw on the frameworks of homonationalism and illiberal liberalism to provide insights into how seemingly incompatible perspectives are mutually constitutive and operate in the service of individuals’ self-interest. We use latent class analysis to examine attitudinal configurations related to homosexuality and Muslim exclusion from the 7thwave (2014) of the European Social Survey (ESS). Our analysis identifies three dominant attitudinal clusters. We find that most respondents held multidimensional views—supporting homosexuality while simultaneously rejecting Muslim migration—consistent with selective tolerance and homonationalist perspectives. The remaining two clusters held unified viewpoints, either rejecting both homosexuality and Muslim migration or favoring both. Predicting these attitudinal configurations with socio-demographic characteristics and attitudes towards immigration, we find that those with selective tolerance-homonationalist perspectives occupy a precarious middle-class position characterized by low levels of educational attainment and lower-status white-collar occupations. We find evidence that individuals in this tenuous social class position express both economic and cultural threat by reappropriating tolerant views toward homosexuality for the purpose of justifying Muslim exclusion.

The cross-sectoral linkage between cultural heritage and security: how cultural heritage has developed as a security issue?

ABSTRACT The understanding of cultural heritage as a growing issue in contemporary security has been described as a heritage-security nexus recognising the protection of cultural heritage as a cross-sectoral topic. It represents an urgent issue in international security politics and in the related field of heritage studies. This article shows how the protection of cultural heritage has found its way into rhetoric relating to security politics, thus placing it on political agendas. This development has had an important impact on the academic field of heritage studies. Therefore, this article seeks to identify the linkage between cultural heritage and security threats and the recognition of it as a new theme in academia during the last two decades. The study argues for a newly defined research field that combines heritage studies with security studies in academic fields such as political science and international relations. Finally, this article argues that the academic field of heritage studies, as well as the heritage institutions and related organisations, needs to have a critical approach to the securitisation process. Involved parties need to consider the intentions and causes of the securitising actors and how they usually benefit from security policies.

“The Transgender Craze Seducing Our [Sons]”; or, All the Trans Guys Are Just Dating Each Other

Abstract Recent antitrans discourses have critiqued trans masculinity in particular as a site of social panic and contagion for proto-trans adolescents. In extreme cases, this is framed as a seduction. Turning “seduction” from a social danger to a benefit, this essay theorizes masc4masc t4t erotics as a type of contagious gendering. The authors discuss the coming into identity that takes place via desire for trans people, including a sexual urge toward or attraction to people who look like the person one wants to be. They examine the cultural representations of ftm4ftm erotics, and what it means to think about these relationships now, in the face of their new emergence as cultural threat. The authors make a close reading of 2000s-era erotica and pornography to argue that Daddy/boy and group sex dynamics can be read as gender labor, affective and intersubjective work that produces gender and that in t4t erotics works within a framework of differentiated reciprocity. The article concludes by gesturing toward future possibilities for trans masc 4 trans masc politics and pleasures.

Public Attitudes toward Internal and Foreign Migration

AbstractWe explore attitudes toward internal and foreign migration in China using an original survey experiment. If labor-market competition drives attitudes, then residents will be opposed to migrants with comparable skill levels, regardless of migrant origin. If residents fear a dilution of national identity, then they will be more opposed to foreign than internal migration. We conduct a national survey in Mainland China, where we randomly assign respondents to answer questions about migrants with different skill levels and from either foreign countries or other provinces in China. We find that attitudes cleave over skill level, but the foreign-internal dimension is, on its own, not a salient cleavage in preferences. However, when considering high-skilled migrants, respondents are more supportive of foreign than internal migration; when considering low-skilled migrants, they are more opposed to foreign than internal migration. The results cast doubt on material explanations for attitudes toward migration and suggest a reevaluation of cultural threat arguments that privilege national borders.

The Conditional Relationship between Cultural and Economic Threat in White Americans’ Support for Refugee Relocation Programs

The Conditional Relationship between Cultural and Economic Threat in White Americans’ Support for Refugee Relocation Programs

Anti-EU Backlash from Below or Above? Public Opinion in Central and Eastern Europe Prior to the 2015 Migration Crisis

Relations between Brussels and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) worsened during and after the 2015 migration crisis. In order to see to what extent CEE citizens contributed to and/or resonated with this new state of affairs, this paper investigates public opinion before the migration crisis in seven CEE EU Member States. We inquire whether the main issues of the rift (CEE political elites’ opposition to following EU decisions and immigration and their emphasis on sovereignism, nationalism, Christian Europe and historical traumas) could also be traced to public stances towards these issues before the migration crisis. We used the ISSP National Identity module conducted in 2013 and 2014 in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Croatia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia. The results show that opposition to EU supranationalism was not linked to ethnic nationalism and religious identity (except in Hungary). Contrary to political elites, who emphasised the cultural threat posed by migration, public opinion was more concerned with the economic threat. Moreover, the perception of cultural threat was not linked to opposing EU supranationalism in any of the countries. However, particularly support for sovereignism (in almost all the countries), but also pride in national history (in some countries) correlated negatively with support for EU supranationalism. The results suggest that political elites can bypass public opinion to construct an anti-EU climate, however not out of thin air. The conditions for such a process were present in Hungary with its emerging transnational cleavage, which shows the importance of cleavages in studying Euroscepticism.

United or divided in diversity? The heterogeneous effects of ethnic diversity on European and national identities.

In this article, we argue that the size and cultural proximity of immigrant populations in people's residential surroundings shape national and European identities. This means that the type of migrant population activates cultural threat perceptions and opportunities for contact to varying degrees. Geocoded survey data from the Netherlands suggests that large non-Western immigrant shares are associated with more exclusive national identities, while mixed contexts with Western and non-Western populations show more inclusive identities. These results suggest that highly diverse areas with mixed immigrant populations hold a potential for more tolerance. In contrast, exclusive national identities become strongly pronounced under the presence of sizeable culturally distant immigrant groups.

Взаимосвязь социального капитала и аккультурационных ожиданий эстонцев в Эстонии: воспринимаемая угроза как медиатор

This study examines the mediating role of perceived threat from other ethnic groups in the relationship between social capital and acculturation expectations of the host population. Consistent with Stephans’ theory, the article examined the impact of three types of perceived threat: economic, cultural, and physical. The sample consists of ethnic Estonians born and living in Estonia (N = 309). The study examined how the perceived threat affects the relationship between social capital indicators (general trust, ethnic tolerance, binding and uniting social capital) and acculturation expectations (“multiculturalism”, “melting pot”, “seg regation”). The results showed that physical perceived threat was a mediator of the relationship between ethnic tolerance and “multiculturalism”. With the increase in physical threat, the preference for “multiculturalism” decreased. Economic threat has been shown to mediate the relationship between general trust and “segregation”, as well as connecting social capital and “segregation”. In these two cases, the economic threat increased the likelihood of a preference for “segregation” by the host population. The mediative role of cultural threat was not confirmed in the present study.

Supplemental Material for Diversifying Neighborhoods and Schools Engender Perceptions of Foreign Cultural Threat Among White Americans

Supplemental Material for Diversifying Neighborhoods and Schools Engender Perceptions of Foreign Cultural Threat Among White Americans

Clear and Omnipresent Danger: Digital Age Culture Wars and Reactions to Drag Queen Story Hour across Diverse Subreddit Communities

The culture wars, or battle between American conservatives and progressives to define national values, appeared to be in abeyance until they were seemingly reignited by Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” rally cry. Yet, contemporary culture wars are different from those of previous decades because, instead of being driven by political and intellectual elites, they are often fought by populist voices on social media platforms. Additionally, whereas culture wars have traditionally been understood as reactionary to changes in local communities, social media may redefine community such that threats emerging in one geographic area reverberate across the country. In this study, we analyze 1658 comments posted to four ideologically divergent Reddit communities in response to Drag Queen Story Hour, which entails drag performers reading books to children in libraries. Our analysis demonstrates ways that different communities grapple with cultural threat, with those who have historically influenced American values exhibiting fear over the power they stand to lose. Additionally, in our analysis, members of online communities responded to threats that materialized in geographic communities to which they did not necessarily have a tangible connection. Thus, the diffuse nature of digital age culture wars may render distinctions between abstract and tangible threats obsolete.

الإعلام الأمني ودوره في التوعية ومشاركة المجتمع في حفظ الأمن )مدخل نظري وعملي للمؤسسات الأمنية والمجتمعية في السودان)

This research titeld:(The Role of Security Media In The Awareness and The Achievement of Community Participation in Security Preservation), suggests two curriculums for Security Media administrations to implement this role.
 The research aims at identifying the importance of Security Media in standing against cultural threats,intellectual invasion, and liquidation of entity (religious, creed, and original culture),also aims at awarening how to avoid crimes, and how to follow up legal procedures to face crimes whenever it occurs. 
 The research concluded to many findings, the most important of which is: There is a feasibility to prepare theoretical and practical scientific curricula in the field of : The awareness to preserve security, and: The achievement of community participation in security preservation. Implementing these curricula through scholastic stages make it possible to arrange a complete generation who will bear responsibility in achieving community participation in security preservation.
 The study presented many Recommendations, the most important of which is: The awareness to preserve security, and: The achievement of community participation in security preservation, should be in the fore preference of security media programs. Framing the possibility enables security media bodies to make use of many educational institutions in delivering security media messages pertaining the awareness to preserve security, and the achievement of community participation in security preservation, to all community categories.

Can community involvement policies mitigate NIMBYism and local opposition to asylum seeker centres?

Local governments have to take authoritative decisions about the placement of controversial but necessary facilities such as Asylum Seeker Centres (ASCs). Opposition from local residents against such facilities is often considered to be an expression of NIMBYism. This article explores whether a policy of community involvement addressing the underlying reasons for local opposition can mitigate such opposition towards an ASC. It uses a mixed methods approach combining survey data and semi-structured interviews among neighbourhood residents about an ASC in Utrecht. Local opposition is associated with experiences of economic competition and cultural threat. The policy strategy did not moderate these effects. Those who became involved were a selective group of locals who were largely already accepting of the centre and its inhabitants and involvement was often incidental. However, contact between asylum seekers and neighbours developing within and beyond the ASC mediated the effect of cultural threat – confirming Allport’s contact hypothesis.

In the Shadow of the Tower: Spatial proximity to mosques, visible diversity, and support for the radical right

Growth in racial, ethnic, and religious minority populations in western societies has coincided with the growing success of nativist and radical right political parties. A leading target for nativist politicians has been Islamic religious symbols, particularly mosques. But does the presence of mosques within citizens’ milieux influence their political behaviour? To explore this question, we draw on longitudinal survey data from the Netherlands augmented by a web-scraped list of Dutch mosques to investigate the influence of local context – both architectural context in the form of spatial proximity to mosques and local demographic context in the form of visible diversity – on support for the Party for Freedom (PVV), a radical right, nativist political party. Our analyses reveal that while proximity to a mosque increases support for the radical right, proximity to a mosque with a minaret exerts a stronger effect. Also, closer proximity to a mosque with a minaret and greater local diversity amplify the differences in party support between the left and right. These findings allow us to better understand the impact of symbolic cultural threat on voting for nativist parties.

The Politicization of Immigration and Integration at the Subnational Level: Electoral Campaigns in Ontario and Quebec

AbstractOpen political debate on immigration and integration policies (IIP) among Canadian political parties has been relatively limited. As Canada's immigration and integration systems become more decentralized, what about political debates about IIP in Canadian provinces? This article examines how IIP evolved across time by focusing on political parties’ claims, frames and pledges in party platforms and newspapers, using the cases of Ontario and Quebec. In Ontario, IIP were primarily framed as an economic and social resource. However, following the event of 9/11, new frames began to be introduced, contributing to a heightened salience and polarization. In contrast to Quebec, however, this politicization was not sustained. In Quebec, IIP were only marginally a matter of debate until the mid-2000s. This changed following the Hérouxville event, as these topics became salient, and dominant frames of immigration as economic and social resources were challenged by those of immigration as economic and cultural threats.

The dynamics of attitudes toward immigrants: Cohort analyses for Western EU member states

Public opinion climates on immigrants are subject to certain dynamics. This study examines two mechanisms for such dynamics in Western EU member states for the 2002–2018 period. First, the impact of cohort replacement and, second, the impact of periodic threat perceptions, namely, changing macroeconomic conditions and shifts in immigration rates. To date, empirical research on anti-immigrant sentiments rarely combines these two concepts simultaneously to disentangle the interplay of period and cohort effects and determine the factors for long- and short-term attitude changes in societies. Motivated by this gap in the literature, I conduct multiple linear regression analyses of pooled data from all waves of the European Social Survey to show that the process of cohort replacement has led to a substantially more positive opinion climate toward immigrants since the 2000s. However, results indicate that in the future, this positive development is likely to come to a halt since younger cohorts no longer hold significantly more immigrant-friendly attitudes than their immediate predecessors. Furthermore, we observe different period effects to impact cohorts’ attitudes. Fixed-effects panel analyses show that the effect of changing macroeconomic conditions on cohorts’ attitudes is low. Changes in immigration rates, however, lead to significantly more dismissive attitudes when immigrants originate from the Global South as opposed to when they enter from EU countries. These insights suggest that it is less economic or cultural threat perceptions, but ethnic prejudice that plays a key role for natives to oppose immigration. Overall, findings suggest that it is not either cohort or period effects driving large-scale attitude changes, but rather we observe an interplay of both.

Investigating direct and indirect globalization-based acculturation

Cultural globalization affects most people around the world in contemporary, modern societies. The resulting intercultural contact have been examined using the theory of globalization-based acculturation. However, little is known about possible differences and similarities in processes underlying the effects of direct (e.g., through contact with immigrants) and indirect (e.g., engagement with cultural elements through media) forms of new cultural exposure. Drawing on the contact hypothesis, social identity theory, and symbolic threat theory, we examined whether perceived intercultural threat and local and global identities would explain whether both forms of contact result in multicultural acquisition or in ethnic protection. In Study 1 (N = 402), indirect, but not direct, intercultural contact was positively associated with multicultural acquisition; and both types of intercultural contact were negatively linked with ethnic protection. Global identity significantly mediated the association of both direct and indirect intercultural contact with both multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection, whereas perceived cultural threat only significantly mediated the associations of direct intercultural contact with multicultural acquisition and ethnic protection. In Study 2 (N = 424), higher levels of ethnic protection, and lower levels of multicultural acquisition, emerged in the experimental group primed with indirect, versus direct, intercultural contact. Furthermore, intercultural threat was negatively, and global identity positively, associated with multicultural acquisition, while intercultural threat was positively, and global identity negatively, associated with ethnic protection. Results are discussed in relation to similarities and differences across direct and indirect intercultural contact, providing a nuanced understanding of contemporary intercultural contact and globalization-based acculturation among majority populations.

Ideological bases of attitudes towards meat abstention: Vegetarianism as a threat to the cultural and economic status quo

Those on the political right engage in greater meat consumption and animal exploitation than their left-wing counterparts. Previous research suggests this is because they view vegetarianism as threatening the nation’s dietary customs and economy. Across two studies, I extend this concept of “vegetarianism threat” by showing that it separates into two distinct dimensions of concern: cultural (symbolic) threats and economic (realistic) threats. The resultant multidimensional scale allows a finer grained understanding of the roots of ideology-based threat responses to meat-free movements. Together, results implicate symbolic concerns as the key element of vegetarianism threat contributing to negative attitudes towards meat abstention and its proponents.