Outgroup Threat Research Articles

Who Is to Blame? Official Discourse and Ethnic Diversity Attitudes During the 2011 Riots in England

In 2011, the killing of a Black man by a police officer triggered violent riots across England. In a context where ethnic minorities are rarely openly blamed, we examined the lens through which the events were interpreted in the official discourses of the British Prime Minister. A thematic content analysis (Study 1) revealed that, without explicitly blaming ethnic minorities, the discourses built on antagonistic normative references opposing a virtuous majority to threatening minorities. Then, based on online survey data of self‐declared Londoners (N = 223) during the riots, we analyzed (Study 2) how agreement with the discourses related to individuals’ ethnocentrism and their understanding of the causes underlying the events. Results of regression analyses showed how agreement with the discourses related to blaming ethnic diversity for the riots and to higher ethnocentrism, especially among individuals least likely to discriminate against minorities (i.e., low in social dominance orientation). Agreement with the discourses was also linked to reduced blame of authorities. To conclude, we discuss the mobilization potential of political discourses on ingroup virtue and outgroup threat.

Out-Group Threat Promotes Within-Group Affiliation in a Cooperative Fish.

In social species, conflict with outsiders is predicted to affect within-group interactions and thus influence group dynamics and the evolution and maintenance of sociality. Although empirical evidence exists for a relationship between out-group conflict and intragroup behavior in humans, experimental tests in other animals are rare. In a model fish system, we show that simulated out-group intrusions cause postconflict increases in intragroup affiliation but no changes in postconflict intragroup aggression. Postconflict affiliation was greater following intrusions by neighboring compared with nonneighboring individuals; neighbors represent greater threats to the dominance rank and breeding success of residents, and they are visible in the aftermath of the intrusion. By providing strong evidence of a link between out-group conflict and postconflict intragroup behavior and demonstrating that intragroup affiliation is affected by the nature of the out-group intrusion, our study shows the importance of considering postconflict behavior for our understanding of cooperation and social structure.

Enhanced Memory for both Threat and Neutral Information Under Conditions of Intergroup Threat.

Few studies have examined the effect of intergroup threat on cognitive outcomes such as memory. Different theoretical perspectives can inform how intergroup threat should affect memory for threat-relevant and neutral information, such as the mood-congruency approach, Yerkes–Dodson law, Easterbrook’s theory, and also evolutionary perspectives. To test among these, we conducted two experiments to examine how exposure to intergroup threats affected memory compared to control conditions. In study 1, we manipulated symbolic threat and examined participants’ memory for threat and neutral words. In study 2, memory performance was assessed following the induction of realistic threat. Across the studies, in the control condition participants showed better memory for threat-related than neutral information. However, participants under threat remembered neutral information as well as threat-related information. In addition, participants in the threat condition remembered threat-related information as well as participants in the control condition. The findings are discussed in terms of automatic vigilance processes but also the effects of threat on arousal and its effect on information processing. This latter perspective, suggests paradoxically, that under some circumstances involving an outgroup threat, non-threatening information about outgroups can be extensively processed.

Extracting Social Meaning from a Face: The Neural Substrates and Behavioral Repercussions of Mind Perception

Social cognition requires using visual cues such as a human face to recognize the presence of an entity with a mind. Here, we examined how bottom-up visual evidence and top-down social cues shape inferences about the presence of another mind, and demonstrate behavioral consequences of perceiving minds. Across two experiments, participants viewed morphs between human and inanimate faces that differed in social group membership (nationality in Experiment 1; sports rivalry in Experiment 2), and assessed whether each face had a mind. Neuroimaging revealed that the objective humanness of faces was associated with activity in posterior parietal cortex, and responses in this region were modulated by group membership in a top-down manner (Experiment 1). Moreover, participants perceived faces of out-group members as less able to plan and less able to feel than in-group members or members of a neutral group. However, this bias was flexible as a function of perceived out-group threat: out-group threat was associated with more derogation in judgments of experience, but less derogation in judgments of agency. Finally, differences in mind perception predicted biases in pain management and aggression towards members of the out-group (Experiment 2). This research demonstrates that bottom-up and top-down cues shape the extraction of social meaning from visual evidence, which predicts intergroup bias in downstream behavior. Together, these findings support a theoretical view of mind perception as a dynamic and contextualized process at the intersection of perception and social cognition.

What makes people go to war? Defensive intentions motivate retaliatory and preemptive intergroup aggression

Although humans qualify as one of the most cooperative animal species, the scale of violent intergroup conflict among them is unparalleled. Explanations of the underlying motivations to participate in an intergroup conflict, however, remain unsatisfactory. While previous research shows that intergroup conflict increases individually costly behavior to the benefit of the in-group, it has failed to identify robust triggers of aggressive behavior directed at out-groups. Here, we present a controlled laboratory experiment which demonstrates that such aggression can be provoked systematically by manipulating the extent to which the own group is perceived to be on the offensive or the defensive side of a conflict. We find direct and causal evidence that the motivation to protect the in-group not only is a predictor of retaliatory aggression, but also promotes preemptive offensive actions against out-groups if they pose a potential threat. This finding improves our understanding of the escalation of intergroup conflicts and may have important implications for their prevention, as we find in our experiment that removing out-group threat substantially reduced intergroup aggression and led to full peace.

Relational diversity and neighbourhood cohesion. Unpacking variety, balance and in-group size

Ethnic diversity is typically measured by the well-known Hirschman-Herfindahl Index. This paper discusses the merits of an alternative approach, which is in our view better suited to tease out why and how ethnic diversity matters. The approach consists of two elements. First, all existing diversity indices are non-relational. From the viewpoint of theoretical accounts that attribute negative diversity effects to in-group favoritism and out-group threat, it should however matter whether, given a certain level of overall diversity, an individual belongs to a minority group or to the dominant majority. We therefore decompose diversity by distinguishing the in-group share from the diversity of ethnic out-groups. Second, we show how generalized entropy measures can be used to test which of diversity’s two basic dimensions matters most: the variety of groups, or the unequal distribution (balance) of the population over groups. These measures allow us to test different theoretical explanations against each other, because they imply different expectations regarding the effects of in-group size, out-group variety, and out-group balance. We apply these ideas in an analysis of various social cohesion measures across 55 German localities and show that both in-group size and out-group diversity matter. For the native majority as well as for persons of immigration background, the variety component of diversity seems to be more decisive than has formerly been acknowledged. These findings provide little support for group threat and in-group favoritism as the decisive mechanisms behind negative diversity effects, and are most in line with the predictions of theories that emphasize coordination problems, asymmetric preferences, and network closure.

Re-assessing self-interest theory: Can intergroup contact constrain self-interested reactions?

This article expands previous research on self-interested reactions and intergroup contact by showing that (1) intergroup contact constrains the impact of personal economic vulnerability on perceived out-group threat, (2) personal economic vulnerability has no influence on perceived out-group threat when contact is most intense, and (3) the ability of intergroup contact to reduce perceived out-group threat is strongest among the most economically vulnerable. These findings were generated by a fixed-effects regression of 21 countries and almost 34,000 respondents sampled in the European Social Survey (2002–2003). More generally, our findings suggest that self-interested reactions can be overpowered by the cognitive and affective components of intergroup contact. The concluding section expands on the theoretical implications of the results.

A Struggle over Religious Rights? How Muslim Immigrants and Christian Natives View the Accommodation of Religion in Six European Countries

The accommodation of Muslim minorities in European countries has sparked controversies over the extension of religious rights. Previous research has mostly studied public institutions and debates. But which attitudes toward religious rights do Europeans hold and how can we explain these attitudes? To approach this question, we draw on the novel EURISLAM data set, which allows us for the first time to investigate attitudes of both Muslim minorities and Christian natives in six Western European countries. To explain attitudes, we test the explanatory power of religiosity at the individual level and state-church regimes in both destination and origin countries at the macro level. Overall, Muslims, especially religious Muslims, are more supportive of religious rights than natives. However, we also find that religious natives approve to a greater extent of out-group rights than non-religious natives. We argue that these findings have to be interpreted in light of asymmetric power relationships: Muslim minorities can hardly deny the rights of Christians, as this would undermine their own claims. Similarly, religious natives increasingly constitute a minority in secular societies and may therefore see Muslims as allies in order to strengthen the position of religion in Western Europe. The higher approval of religious individuals challenges the theory on out-group threat, which would lead us to expect that religious individuals are more reluctant to embrace out-group rights. Finally, state-church regimes in the destination countries play a minor role, while the degree of religiosity in the origin countries has an important impact on individual attitudes toward religious rights.

Sex Differences in Salivary Cortisol Responses to Sex-Linked Stressors: A Test of the Tend-and-Befriend Model

This study examined sex differences in salivary cortisol responses to exper- imental stressors and subsequent desire to affiliate in the context of mortality cues following the Tend-and-Befriend model. Participants were randomly assigned to a mortality salience prime or a control condition. They were then assigned to view a video of crying infants or a video designed to elicit out-group threat. As predicted, females showed more cortisol reactivity to the video of crying infants and males showed more cortisol reactivity to the video of hate speech in the no prime condition. Males receiving a mortality salience prime, surprisingly, showed a weaker cortisol response to the out-group threat video compared to males who received no prime. Results provide further support of using the Tend-and-Befriend model to predict differences in stress response system activity between men and women, as well as modifications to that theory that incorporate male responses to out-group threats.

Threat, Victimhood, and Peace: Debating the 2011 Palestinian UN State Membership Bid

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been described as one of the most intractable in the world. This article firstly provides an overview of the socio-political events that led up to the Palestinian UN state membership bid in September 2011, and secondly as a case study, it examines how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was constructed in speeches delivered by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the state membership bid to the UN General Assembly in September 2011. Despite their opposing agendas, there are some significant discursive similarities in the two speeches. The most salient shared discourses concern that of ingroup victimhood, on the one hand, and that of outgroup threat, on the other. It is argued that the speeches unwittingly dispel support for intergroup reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians by aggravating grievances on both sides and accentuating intergroup suspicion. This article highlights the importance of examining political speeches in order to better understand the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Contact and Compromise

Objectives: Informed by intergroup contact theory, this study explores the relationships between intergroup contact, perceived out-group threat, and support for conciliatory solutions to the violent conflict between Israeli Jews and Palestinians in Israel and the Palestinian territories. Methods: Regression and structural equation models analyze public opinion data collected in Israel in 2011 and 2012. The analyses assess whether quantity and quality of Israeli Jews’ contact with Israeli Arabs in day-to-day encounters are associated with their support for conciliatory policies. Results: The quality, but not the quantity, of contact is associated with lower levels of perceived Palestinian threat and, in turn, with increased support for compromise. Conclusion: The current study provides initial evidence that everyday interactions with Israeli Arabs, when they occur under optimal conditions, may have the potential to reduce Israeli Jews’ perceptions of Palestinian threat and, in turn, increase their support for compromise.

Group membership alters the threshold for mind perception: The role of social identity, collective identification, and intergroup threat

Human faces are used as cues to the presence of social agents, and the ability to detect minds and mental states in others occupies a central role in social interaction. In the current research, we present evidence that the human propensity for mind perception is bound by social group membership. Specifically, we show how identification with different social groups influences the threshold for mind perception. In three experiments, participants assessed a continuum of face morphs that ranged from human to doll faces. These faces were described as in-group or out-group members. Participants had higher (i.e., more stringent) thresholds for perceiving minds behind out-group faces, both in minimal (Experiment 1) and real-world groups (Experiment 2). In other words, out-group members required more humanness than in-group members to be perceived as having minds. This intergroup bias in mind perception was moderated by collective identification, such that highly identified group members had the highest threshold for perceiving minds behind out-group relative to in-group faces. In contrast, Democrats and Republicans who perceived the other party as threatening had lower thresholds for perceiving minds behind out-group faces (Experiment 3). These experiments suggest that mind perception is a dynamic process in which relevant contextual information such as social identity and out-group threat change the interpretation of physical features that signal the presence of another mind. Implications for mind perception, dehumanization, and intergroup relations are discussed. (229 words)

MODEL PERSAMAAN STRUKTURAL (STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL) PENGUJIAN MODEL HUBUNGAN SOCIAL IDENTITY DENGAN GROUP DECISION MAKING

<p>This article examines the model theory of out-group threaths, Social Identity and Group Decision Makings and finds out the contribution of out-group threaths and Social Identity toward the decision makings process by applying structural equation model, AMOS 6. Results showed that while out-group threats are salients influenced the positive of social identit which affected to the group decision making process. These findings support previous research conducted by Thompson dan Kray (1998) found that there is a positive relations between social identity and group decision making.</p>

Gene × environment interaction on intergroup bias: the role of5-HTTLPRand perceived outgroup threat

Perceived threat from outgroups is a consistent social-environmental antecedent of intergroup bias (i.e. prejudice, ingroup favoritism). The serotonin transporter gene polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) has been associated with individual variations in sensitivity to context, particularly stressful and threatening situations. Here, we examined how 5-HTTLPR and environmental factors signaling potential outgroup threat dynamically interact to shape intergroup bias. Across two studies, we provide novel evidence for a gene-environment interaction on the acquisition of intergroup bias and prejudice. Greater exposure to signals of outgroup threat, such as negative prior contact with outgroups and perceived danger from the social environment, were more predictive of intergroup bias among participants possessing at least one short allele (vs two long alleles) of 5-HTTLPR. Furthermore, this gene x environment interaction was observed for biases directed at diverse ethnic and arbitrarily-defined outgroups across measures reflecting intergroup biases in evaluation and discriminatory behavior. These findings reveal a candidate genetic mechanism for the acquisition of intergroup bias, and suggest that intergroup bias is dually inherited and transmitted through the interplay of social (i.e. contextual cues of outgroup threat) and biological mechanisms (i.e. genetic sensitivity toward threatening contexts) that regulate perceived intergroup threats.

Perceptual Bias in Threat Distance

Across two studies, we investigate how perceptions of distances to out-group threats may be critically regulated by the presence or absence of one’s in-group and by beliefs regarding the potential for danger from the out-group. Threat regulation includes biases in the distance one perceives a threat, such that threats are perceived as relatively more distant by more formidable compared to less formidable individuals. We demonstrate that whether participants are alone or surrounded by their in-group modulates perceptual biases regarding an out-group male’s proximity, depending on the degree to which participants evaluate out-group males negatively. Our findings illustrate how investigations of the psychology of motivated biases may benefit from a consideration of such perceptual biases within the functional workings of defensive threat regulation systems (McNaughton & Corr, 2004) and the strategic logic of animal conflict (Parker, 1974).

Mantenimiento y adaptación cultural de diferentes grupos inmigrantes: variables predictoras

This study aimed to analyze the cultural maintenance and adaptation dimensions expressed by Moroccan, Romanian, and Ecuadorian immigrants in Spain, as well as psychosocial and social-demographic variables that predicted such tendencies. A correlational study was carried out with immigrants of Moroccan (N = 71), Romanian (N = 74), and Ecuadorian origin (N = 70) who responded to a questionnaire reporting their tendency to maintain the original culture, to adapt to the host culture, and their perceived duty to adapt to the host culture. It was also measured the stereotype dimensions of warmth and competence about Spanish people, out-group threat, in-group identification, perceived in-out-group similarity, nature of out-group contact, perception of inter-group relations, perceived enrichment by immigration, and some social-demographic variables. Results showed the importance of immigrants’ origin on all variables of the study. In addition, the predictors of acculturation dimensions were different depending on the group considered. These results highlight the need for specific interventions, as each immigrant group faces the adaptation process to the new host society in a different way.

MULTIPLE GROUP THREAT AND MALLEABLE WHITE ATTITUDES TOWARDS ACADEMIC MERIT

AbstractAs the White populace in the United States moves toward numerical minority status by 2042, how might Whites respond to impending threat of losing their dominant group position? In particular, how will Whites react at selective, elite universities, where Asians are increasingly prominent and other non-Whites are maintaining or capturing a larger share of enrollments? Drawing on group position theory, I test White commitment to meritocracy as a public policy, using a survey-based experiment (599 California adult residents) to examine the importance grade point average should have in public university admissions. Whites decrease the importance that grade point average should have when Asian group threat is primed. However, White Californians increase the importance that grade point average should have when thinking about group threat from either Blacks or Blacks and Asians simultaneously. Ethnoracial outgroup threat shifts White support for meritocracy in different directions.

The role of intergroup disgust in predicting negative outgroup evaluations

We introduce intergroup disgust as an individual difference and contextual manipulation. As an individual difference, intergroup disgust sensitivity (ITG-DS) represents affect-laden revulsion toward social outgroups, incorporating beliefs in stigma transfer and social superiority. Study 1 (5 samples, N=708) validates the ITG-DS scale. Higher ITG-DS scorers demonstrated greater general disgust sensitivity, disease concerns, authoritarian/conservative ideologies, and negative affect. Greater ITG-DS correlated with stronger outgroup threat perceptions and discrimination, and uniquely predicted negative outgroup attitudes beyond well-established prejudice-predictors. Intergroup disgust was experimentally manipulated in Study 2, exposing participants (n=164) to a travel blog concerning contact with a disgust-evoking (vs. neutral) outgroup. Manipulated disgust generated negative outgroup evaluations through greater threat and anxiety. This mediation effect was moderated: Those higher (vs. lower) in ITG-DS did not experience stronger disgust, threat, or anxiety reactions, but demonstrated stronger translation of aversive reactions (especially outgroup threat) into negative attitudes. Theory development and treatment implications are considered.

Oxytocin motivates non-cooperation in intergroup conflict to protect vulnerable in-group members.

Intergroup conflict is often driven by an individual's motivation to protect oneself and fellow group members against the threat of out-group aggression, including the tendency to pre-empt out-group threat through a competitive approach. Here we link such defense-motivated competition to oxytocin, a hypothalamic neuropeptide involved in reproduction and social bonding. An intergroup conflict game was developed to disentangle whether oxytocin motivates competitive approach to protect (i) immediate self-interest, (ii) vulnerable in-group members, or (iii) both. Males self-administered oxytocin or placebo (double-blind placebo-controlled) and made decisions with financial consequences to themselves, their fellow in-group members, and a competing out-group. Game payoffs were manipulated between-subjects so that non-cooperation by the out-group had high vs. low impact on personal payoff (personal vulnerability), and high vs. low impact on payoff to fellow in-group members (in-group vulnerability). When personal vulnerability was high, non-cooperation was unaffected by treatment and in-group vulnerability. When personal vulnerability was low, however, in-group vulnerability motivated non-cooperation but only when males received oxytocin. Oxytocin fuels a defense-motivated competitive approach to protect vulnerable group members, even when personal fate is not at stake.

Globalization and a Conservative Dilemma: Economic Openness and Retributive Policies

Globalization is associated with economic openness and, in this sense, is in line with conservative free market ideology that embraces less government intervention. Globalization is also associated with greater contact with dissimilar outgroups and potential threats from terrorists and seems to run against conservative attitudes toward outgroup threat and civil liberties. We report research employing two nationally representative samples of 1,000 adults (collected in 2006 and 2008) that explored conservative individuals’ attitudes as American views of terrorism evolved following 9/11. Despite diminishing estimates of the likelihood of terrorist attacks, conservatism remained strongly associated with support for seeking revenge for foreign terrorist attacks and for restricting the civil liberties of foreign visitors and noncitizens in order to prevent terrorism. These trends were not accounted for by differences in levels of perceived threat or by demographic characteristics distinguishing conservatives from others. Results are discussed in the context of globalization and the role of political ideology.