Group Threat Research Articles

Resentments in the cosmopolis: Anti-immigrant attitudes in postcolonial Singapore

This paper presents an analysis of the predictors of anti-immigrant attitudes in the postcolonial society of Singapore based on an examination of the impact of group threat on these resentments. The binary regression analysis finds that direct or parental immigration experience has a mitigating impact on anti-immigrant attitudes, while homophobia is the strongest predictor of anti-immigrant prejudice. However, the preference for Singaporeans over immigrants in the allocation of jobs during times of scarce work and low levels of trust in strangers reinforce anti-immigrant sentiments in Singapore. The outcomes presented in the paper suggest that group threat theory has only a moderate explanatory power and that feelings of mistrust deserve more attention in the future for explaining group-based hostile attitudes in plural contexts. Consequently, multicultural Singaporean society exhibits an attitudinal composition that corresponds only partly with group threat theory but with the assumption of the interrelatedness of prejudices.

Collective Efficacy, Group Threat, and Urban Change: Examining Informal Social Control Forces in Areas of Gentrification

Since the term gentrification was first coined in the 1960s, scholars have had an interest in understanding how this process of change can impact neighborhoods. Empirical research focusing on the relationship between gentrification and crime has yielded varying results, with little examination of the contextual mechanisms that may influence the relationship. This research combines data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods with several other sources, and employs multilevel modeling techniques to examine two such contextual mechanisms – collective efficacy and group threat, conceptualized as perceived neighborhood change. The results offer preliminary support for the moderating roles of collective efficacy and perceived neighborhood change mechanisms on the relationship between gentrification and crime. While there is an overall negative association between gentrification and crime, this effect is strengthened with collective efficacy, but reversed with rising levels of perceived neighborhood change.

Переживание относительной депривации как фактор копинг-стратегии избегания в сетевой коммуникации

Objective: the relationship between a relative deprivation and communication in social networks, in particular, with avoidance coping in the situations of communicative difficulties. Background: the study is focused on coping with difficult situations through the analysis of meta-determinants of construction of the representations about social world, in particular, in the conditions of social network interaction among youth persons. Study design and participants: the study was conducted as a survey involving 193 active users of the social network Vkontakte. Measurements: a double mediation model was tested with a relative deprivation as an independent variable, avoidance coping as a dependent variable, and a perceived threat and an attribution of aggressive intentions as the mediators of this relationship. Results: the results indicate that a relative deprivation is associated with an increase of perceived threat, which in turn increases a likelihood of attributing to people with dissimilar values and attitudes of “bad” intentions and leads to avoiding network interaction. At the same time, the results demonstrate that group threat does not a significant mediator of the relationship between a relative deprivation and network behavior. Conclusions: relative deprivation is associated with avoidance coping in social network communication both directly and indirectly through the actualization of additional social and cognitive variables.

Retraction Notice: The Social Context of Latino Threat and Punitive Latino Sentiment

Prior research on the racial threat perspective and social control typically relies on aggregate-level demographic measures and focuses on racial, rather than on Latino group, composition. This predominant focus in research on racial threat and social control makes it unclear whether the assumed linkages are confined to one subordinate group or whether other groups, such as Latinos, are viewed as threatening and elicit heightened social control reactions as well. In the current study, we use data from the Punitive Attitudes Toward Hispanic (PATH) Study, a national sample of U.S. residents to investigate the influence of macro- and micro-level measures of Latino group threat on punitive Latino sentiment. More specifically, we use multilevel models to detect direct and interactive relationships between Latino presence and perceived Latino threat on punitive sentiment. The findings show that Latino population growth and perceived Latino criminal and economic threat significantly predict punitive Latino sentiment. Additionally, multiplicative models suggest that the effect of perceived criminal threat on punitive Latino sentiment is most pronounced in settings that have experienced recent growth in the size of the Latino population.

Ethnic Discrimination in Multi-ethnic Societies: Evidence from Russia

AbstractField experiments have provided ample evidence of ethnic and racial discrimination in the labour market. Less is known about how discrimination varies in multi-ethnic societies, where the ethnic composition of populations is different across locations. Inter-group contact and institutional arrangements for ethnic minorities can mitigate the sense of group threat and reduce discrimination. To provide empirical evidence of this, we conduct a field experiment of ethnic discrimination in Russia with a sample of over 9,000 job applications. We compare ethnically homogeneous cities and cities with ethnically mixed populations and privileged institutional status of ethnic minorities. We find strong discrimination against visible minorities in the former but much weaker discrimination in the latter. These findings demonstrate how institutions and historical contexts of inter-group relations can affect ethnic prejudice and discrimination.

Pathways toward Jihadism in Western Europe: An Empirical Exploration of a Comprehensive Model of Terrorist Radicalization

ABSTRACT Islamist terror is one of the most terrifying threats worldwide. However, there is no common model about the mechanisms underlying the complex process of radicalization and research is usually undermined by a lack of empirical data. Therefore, we aimed to compose a comprehensive model of radicalization, and test it empirically collecting and analyzing data on Islamist radicals in Western Europe. In Study 1, police professionals assessed seventy-five subjects under investigation for being in the process of radicalization. In Study 2, data from open source news articles about eighty six radical Muslims were evaluated by psychologists. Specific individual preconditions including young age, male gender, migration background, and biographical cuts were consistently found among radicals. Fueling the actual radicalization process, a gradual increase of individual, group and catalyst processes was observed from early (Study 1) to late stages of radicalization (Study 2). These included pursuing individual needs (transcendence, significance, self-esteem, control); processes in the course of a strong group commitment (group identification, prejudice, polarization, perceived group threat, collective emotions, informative influence); and cognitive adaptions to get increasingly comfortable with applying violence (desensitization, dehumanization). The current work may be a solid basis for further empirical investigations and for creating means of prevention and deradicalization.

Economic Downturns and Hardline Public Opinion

ObjectiveWith an aim of extending the scope of group threat theory from within‐country tensions between racial groups to international economic competition, this study specifically examined the impacts of perceived relative economic status of an in‐group country on attitudes about contentious political issues with a rival out‐group country.MethodsTwo survey experiments were administered, both of which manipulated Japanese participants’ perceptions of the relative economic powers of Japan and South Korea.ResultsWhen Japanese perceive that their country's economic power is declining relative to South Korea's economy, they demonstrate more hardline attitudes about territorial and historical issues between the two countries.ConclusionThis study demonstrates the applicability of group threat theory to bilateral international relations. It also suggests that public opinion about international conflicts is a function of the long‐term rebalancing of economic power, which cannot be easily influenced by short‐term policies.

Black Out-group Marriages and Hate Crime Rates: A Cross-sectional Analysis of U.S. Metropolitan Areas

Objectives: This study introduces an indicator of racial out-group marriage to the research on hate crime. Drawing upon a variant of group threat theory, we hypothesize that Black out-group marriage with Whites will be positively related to anti-Black hate crime rates insofar as such marriages are perceived as transgressions of cultural boundaries. Informed by Allport’s contact theory, we hypothesize that Black out-group marriage with Whites will be negatively related to anti-Black hate crime rates insofar as such marriages indicate intercultural accommodation. Methods: Using data for a sample of U.S. Metropolitan Statistical Areas circa 2010, we assess our hypotheses with two operationalizations of levels of hate crime—incidence rates and victimization rates. Results: Our results reveal that levels of Black out-group marriages with Whites are positively related to the Black hate crime victimization rate but not related to the incidence rate. Conclusions: Our analyses suggest that any salutary effect of intercultural accommodation associated with interracial marriage is overwhelmed by the influence of the perceived cultural threat and intensification of animus for the “at-risk” population for perpetrating anti-Black hate crimes.

Bridging Narratives: Predictors of Jewish American and Arab American Support for a Two‐State Solution to the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict

AbstractIn a survey study of Arab and Jewish Americans, we examined which beliefs best predicted support for a two‐state solution. We compared the role of a sense of collective victimhood, dehumanization of the outgroup, a zero‐sum view, and a monolithic narrative on the conflict. In both the Arab American and the Jewish American samples, framing the conflict in terms of a monolithic narrative played the strongest role in predicting rejection of a two‐state solution. On the other hand, when Jewish Americans agreed with the Palestinian narrative, that depicts the Palestinians as indigenous to the land but as dispossessed, they were more likely to support a two‐state solution. Similarly, when Arab Americans agreed with the Israeli narrative, in which Israelis want to live in peace but need to defend themselves, they were more likely to support a two‐state solution. In a second study, we examined if group values and concerns such as commitment to tikkun olam (commitment for justice for other minority groups) and concern with anti‐Semitism mediated between identification as Jewish and acceptance of the Palestinian narrative on the conflict. We found that concern with anti‐Semitism mediated between Jewish identity and rejection of the Palestinian narrative. On the other hand, grounding Jewish identity in values of tikkun olam mediated between Jewish identity and agreement with the Palestinian narrative. This research makes applied contributions by illuminating the key belief associated with support for peace among Arab and Jewish Americans. It also contributes to psychological theory on intergroup reconciliation by operationalizing and measuring the role of acknowledgement of the narrative of the other, group threat, and inclusive victimhood consciousness, in promoting peace.

Labour market discrimination against Moroccan minorities in the Netherlands and Spain: a cross-national and cross-regional comparison

ABSTRACT This paper examines discrimination against job candidates of Moroccan origin in Spain and the Netherlands. By drawing on insights from group threat theory, we specifically examine how latent ethnic conflicts regarding economic goods or cultural values at the regional level affect discrimination rates of Moroccan minorities in both countries. To this aim, we make use of a cross-nationally standardised field experiment with fictitious candidates applying for real job vacancies in Spain and the Netherlands (n = 3681). We find higher levels of discrimination against job applicants of Moroccan origin in the Netherlands. Whereas job candidates of Moroccan origin are six percentage points less likely to receive a positive response from an employer in Spain, the predicted ethnic gap in call-back rates is fourteen percentage points in the Netherlands. Furthermore, while regional differences in discrimination are not related to regional unemployment figures, we do find some evidence that in the Netherlands a larger share of Moroccans in the region exacerbates discrimination against Moroccan minorities. Altogether, the findings point to the need to give greater weight to the impact of widespread negative beliefs about ethnic minorities and how these beliefs can have a profound adverse impact on the integration of disadvantaged ethnic groups within the labour market.

What the Group Threat Hypothesis Notes About States' Medicaid Spending.

This secondary data analysis examined the relationship between state Medicaid spending in 2000-2014 and the perspective of the group threat hypothesis. The hypothesis posits that as any racial minority group grows in size, the increase is perceived by the racial majority group to threaten its dominant status. The employed data described states' Medicaid spending, racial makeup, and poverty and unemployment rates and came from reports compiled by several federal agencies. It was processed first in 2 discrete date-based groups. Results with 2000-2009 data showed states' per capita Medicaid spending to be associated negatively with their racial makeup. Specifically, states with proportionally larger Hispanic populations appeared to spend less on Medicaid versus states with fewer Hispanic residents, as did states with proportionally larger other non-African American minority populations (versus states with fewer such residents). Our findings with 2010-2014 data indicated no association between Hispanic population and states' per capita Medicaid spending. Combining data from both periods, we observed no significant association between state Medicaid spending and each of the following: proportion of African Americans in state population, poverty rate, and unemployment rate. In general, state Medicaid spending increased gradually throughout the years studied. Policy implications are discussed.

The promise and peril of sexual harassment programs

Two decades ago, the Supreme Court vetted the workplace harassment programs popular at the time: sexual harassment grievance procedures and training. However, harassment at work remains common. Do these programs reduce harassment? Program effects have been difficult to measure, but, because women frequently quit their jobs after being harassed, programs that reduce harassment should help firms retain current and aspiring women managers. Thus, effective programs should be followed by increases in women managers. We analyze data from 805 companies over 32 y to explore how new sexual harassment programs affect the representation of white, black, Hispanic, and Asian-American women in management. We find support for several propositions. First, sexual harassment grievance procedures, shown in surveys to incite retaliation without satisfying complainants, are followed by decreases in women managers. Second, training for managers, which encourages managers to look for signs of trouble and intervene, is followed by increases in women managers. Third, employee training, which proscribes specific behaviors and signals that male trainees are potential perpetrators, is followed by decreases in women managers. Two propositions specify how management composition moderates program effects. One, because women are more likely to believe harassment complaints and less likely to respond negatively to training, in firms with more women managers, programs work better. Two, in firms with more women managers, harassment programs may activate group threat and backlash against some groups of women. Positive and negative program effects are found in different sorts of workplaces.

Expanding the Castle: Explaining Stand Your Ground Legislation in American States, 2005–2012

Although studies have analyzed the effects of “stand your ground” (SYG) laws on violent crime, the question of why states are more likely to take measures to allow gun violence (albeit in self-defense) in the public sphere remains understudied in the literature. Using a fixed-effects event-history analysis of a panel of longitudinal state-level data for the period 2005–2012, we expand upon recent research by testing three competing perspectives on the adoption of SYG laws: group threat, political partisanship, and crime. Despite rhetorical framing of SYG laws as a means of self-defense from predatory criminals by gun-rights organizations, we find no effect of crime on the passage of SYG laws. Nor do we find evidence for group threat. Implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed. Instead, results support the political partisanship view, providing further evidence of the politicization of gun policy in the contemporary United States.

Is There a Backlash Against Immigration From Richer Countries? International Hierarchy and the Limits of Group Threat

Why do immigrants from particular countries systematically face more opposition? To resolve inconsistencies of prevailing group‐threat theories, I reintroduce a long‐standing hypothesis stipulating that people have a disposition for maintaining status hierarchy between ethnic groups. Accordingly, independent of perceived economic or cultural threat, natives are more likely to prefer immigrant groups of higher status based on the development level of the group's national origin. To test this argument, I exploit a substantial provincial variation of immigration flows and attitudes in Spain—one of the only countries that has received immigrants from both less and more developed countries. Consistent with my hypothesis, I demonstrate that anti‐immigration attitudes are more widespread in areas with immigrants from less developed countries regardless of their economic and cultural characteristics. I further document that many voters perceive stable group hierarchies and that these preferences are more predictive of anti‐immigration attitudes in lower‐status immigration contexts. Overall, these results suggest that even culturally similar and economically beneficial immigrant groups from poorer countries can face public opposition due to their lower‐status national origin, highlighting the independent role of group‐status perceptions in politics.

Policing through subsidized firepower: An assessment of rational choice and minority threat explanations of police participation in the 1033 program*

Policing through subsidized firepower: An assessment of rational choice and minority threat explanations of police participation in the 1033 program*

Clarifying the Theoretical Tenets of the Symbolic Threat Perspective

Although Tittle and Curran in 1988 found support for the symbolic threat hypothesis, no further empirical investigations of the perspective have occurred to explain the contingencies of juvenile justice decision-making. We argue that past research has neglected this multilevel theory by only focusing on the “symbolic threat” thesis component, mischaracterizing the perspective as an inequality theory, or classifying the model as a derivative of Blalock’s minority group threat perspective. We contend that the original formulation of the symbolic threat hypothesis is a distinctive theory and offers a viable alternative to inequality and other racial/threat theoretical perspectives. The current study empirically tests the perspective in its entirety by examining the interrelationships between county-level characteristics (i.e. youth and minority populations), a juvenile’s race/ethnicity, and engaging in “moral offenses” with juvenile justice decision-making. The findings provide insight into the influence of contextual factors on the social control of youth of different racial/ethnic backgrounds.

Somos Más: How Racial Threat and Anger Mobilized Latino Voters in the Trump Era

While evidence from California suggests that group threat mobilizes Latinos, nationally, there has never been a test case for this theory. In 2016, the Trump campaign provided a clear case of group threat through his divisive rhetoric and policy proposals targeting Mexican Americans and immigrants. Using the 2016 Collaborative Multi-Racial Post-Election Survey (CMPS) data, we find evidence that Latino voters were politically motivated by Trump’s anti-Latino rhetoric. We hypothesize that Latino voters who perceive Latinos as a racialized group and feel a sense of immigrant-linked fate are more likely to hold negative views toward the Republican candidate, and feel angry during the 2016 election. We further find that Latino voters who were angry were more likely to engage in political activities such as donating to campaigns, contacting government officials, and protesting during and shortly after the 2016 election. The findings hold for U.S. born Latinos as well as among non-Mexican Latinos who felt similarly targeted by Trump’s rhetoric and proposals.

Group Threat at the Ground Level: Support for Ethnically Radical Parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly

Ethnic settlement patterns and other forms of everyday interethnic social contact have the potential to influence voter preferences for ethnic tribune parties who position themselves as the most strident protectors of, and flagbearers for, their respective ethnic groups. Previous studies on this topic have come to rival conclusions, with some finding that increased intergroup contact and residential mixing produce a corresponding increase in support for tribune parties and others finding the opposite. This study uses a combination of data from elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly from 1998 to 2017 and survey data from 2016 to evaluate these rival arguments and assess the extent to which the broader institutional and demographic context in which political competition takes place condition responses to intergroup contact. Our findings indicate that voters in both declining and ascending demographic groups respond similarly to intergroup contact, expressing less support for tribune parties in contexts where residential patterns and social networks provide more opportunities for intergroup contact. These results highlight the conditional nature of the effectiveness of consensus-based institutions in divided societies: they can create incentives for moderation, but those incentives are most likely to be realized in contexts where rival groups experience a high level of integration.

Negative Intergroup Contact and Radical Right‐Wing Voting: The Moderating Roles of Personal and Collective Self‐Efficacy

This study examines whether negative contact with immigrants promotes voting for radical right‐wing parties, to what extent this relationship can be explained by feelings of outgroup threat, and whether this relationship depends on perceived personal and collective self‐efficacy. Hypotheses were tested among 630 native Dutch respondents, mainly living in multicultural neighborhoods. The results show that negative contact with immigrants is associated with feelings of personal (egocentric) and group (sociotropic) threat, and both these feelings, in turn, are associated with radical right‐wing voting. However, negative intergroup contact is less strongly related to egocentric threat when individuals feel able to personally address negative situations with other people (personal self‐efficacy). Furthermore, the findings suggest that negative intergroup contact is less strongly related to sociotropic threat when individuals believe that people in their neighborhood are able to collectively address some negative situations (collective self‐efficacy).

The effects of race/ethnicity and racial/ethnic identification on general trust

General trust in others can facilitate social cooperation and reduce uncertainty on a personal level. However, those from the dominant group in society are more likely to trust than those from minority groups. We examine the gap in trust for whites compared to blacks and Hispanics in the U.S., with special attention to how strongly individuals identify with their racial/ethnic group, which may help restore trust for some when it is lacking. Using the 2014 GSS Identity Module, we find, as have others, that whites show higher trust than blacks and Hispanics, but when we examine people's identification with their racial/ethnic group, whites show lower trust than blacks and Hispanics. A strong racial/ethnic identification among the majority (whites) is associated with group threat and reduced trust. We discuss how identification with one's racial/ethnic group appears to have different effects depending on whether one is of a minority or majority status.