Outgroup Attitudes Research Articles

Meeting of minds: Narratives as a tool to reduce prejudice toward stigmatized group members

This study investigates a mechanism of mediated intergroup contact effects that occurs through experiencing social presence of a stigmatized outgroup character. Conceiving narrative texts as a context for mediated intergroup contact, we experimentally test ( N = 505) the effects of narrative perspective (first vs. third person) and the photograph of the outgroup protagonist (present vs. absent) on perceived social presence of the outgroup character. We further test whether experiencing the outgroup protagonist as socially present affects intergroup outcomes (i.e., perspective-taking, intergroup anxiety, outgroup knowledge, and outgroup attitudes). Findings indicate that first-person narratives are more effective than third-person narratives in inducing social presence of the stigmatized outgroup character; photos, unexpectedly, did not have such an effect. Social presence, in turn, plays a key role in facilitating positive intergroup outcomes from reading online narrative texts. The implications of our findings are discussed.

The Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) and Internal Auditors' Independence in the Saudi Listed Companies

This study aims to investigate the effect of prejudice on the attitude of the auditee toward the internal auditors' independence in Saudi Corporations. This study adopted the definitions of prejudice put forward by Allport (1954) and Stephan & Stephan (1996) as negative attitudes or evaluations held towards a particular group because of certain characteristics that the group possesses. The Integrated Threat Theory (ITT) developed by Stephan et al. (1996) postulates that prejudice is a conflict that negatively influences out-group attitudes. Using a sample of 210 participants from the Saudi Corporations, three models were developed, and the results indicate that auditee staff will develop prejudice when they become wary about internal auditors and their reports, a result that supports the literature in this regard. In addition, the results indicate that when the managers become anxious due to threats, they also become worried about the auditor's independence. Besides, the management will feel real threat from the internal auditor.

Citizen Responses to Ethnic Representation

Can country leaders improve citizens’ ethnic outgroup views by changing ethnic representation in government? Years of pressure from the international community calling for leaders to make particularly their cabinets more ethnically representative seems to suggest that ethnic representation—conceptualized as descriptive and substantive representation and ministerial cooperation—is key to improving citizens’ outgroup views. I argue that increasing ethnic representation influences majority and minority citizens differently; minority citizens’ outgroup views will become more favorable, while majority citizens’ views will worsen. Using a pre-registered vignette experiment with ethnic Albanians and Macedonians in North Macedonia, I show that ethnic representation does not provide the improvements in outgroup relations that many have hoped. Both groups’ affect toward and perceptions of the cabinet change somewhat, but increasing ethnic representation does not improve overall outgroup attitudes. These results suggest that ethnic representation alone does not lead to more productive interethnic relationships.

The pathogen paradox: Evidence that perceived COVID-19 threat is associated with both pro- and anti-immigrant attitudes

The COVID-19 pandemic, as a global threat to humanity, is likely to instigate a variety of collective responses in the society. We examined, for the first time, whether the COVID-19 threat perception is related to attitudes towards Syrian refugees in Turkey, theorizing a dual pathway whereby pandemic-induced threat would relate to both pro- and anti-immigrant feelings. Drawing upon integrated threat theory and models of collective-threat regulation, we expected that pandemic threat would lead to more exclusionary outgroup attitudes through increased immigrant threat, whereas we argued that perceived COVID-19 threat would promote inclusionary attitudes through creating a common ingroup in the face of a global threat. Using online search volume data at the province level (Study 1, <em>N</em> = 81) and self-reporting measures at the individual level (Study 2, <em>N</em> = 294), we found that the COVID-19 threat was directly associated with more positive attitudes towards refugees (Study 1 and 2). Study 2 further revealed indirect positive (through a sense of common identity) and negative (through perceptions of immigrant threat) links between COVID-19 threat perception and outgroup attitudes. These results highlight the importance of integrating threat regulation and social identity perspectives when assessing the implications of pathogen-related threats.

Are emotionally intelligent people less prejudiced? The importance of emotion management skills for outgroup attitudes

AbstractPeople vary in their ability to understand, process, and manage information about one's own and others’ emotions, a construct known as Emotional Intelligence (EI). Past research highlighted the importance of EI in interpersonal relations as well as the key role of emotions underlying outgroup prejudice. Remarkably, hardly any research has investigated the associations between EI and outgroup prejudice. In three studies (total N = 922) conducted in Spain and the United Kingdom, we measured emotional intelligence using self‐report and performance tests and prejudice toward a variety of outgroups. Results showed that those with stronger performance‐based emotion management skills expressed lower generalized ethnic prejudice (Studies 1–3), more positive attitudes toward immigrants (Study 2a) and refugees (Study 2b), and less homophobic attitudes (Study 3). This negative association between emotion management and prejudice was found with different performance‐based EI measures and held after controlling for self‐perceived EI (Study 1) and self‐reported abilities to regulate emotions (Study 3). Study 3 further demonstrated that higher empathy partly accounted for the association between emotion management and prejudice. The findings suggest that emotion management abilities play an important, but so far largely neglected role in generalized prejudice.

Intergroup attitudes between meat-eaters and meat-avoiders: The role of dietary ingroup identification

Why might some meat-eaters and meat-avoiders express negative attitudes toward each other? We investigated intergroup attitudes and potential underpinnings of these attitudes across three different dietary groups—veg*ans (vegetarians and vegans), flexitarians (people who restrict their meat intake partially), and meat-eaters—in Turkey ( NStudy 1 = 366; NStudy 2 = 450). In both studies, veg*ans showed the greatest ingroup favouritism and reported the highest ingroup identification and perceived discrimination. Meat enjoyment, moral consideration, and perceived veg*an threat (among meat-eaters) predicted dietary ingroup identification in Study 1, whereas perceived discrimination towards one’s dietary group was the strongest predictor of identification among all dietary groups in Study 2. Among meat-avoiders, but not among meat-eaters, stronger dietary ingroup identification was associated with more negative outgroup attitudes. Findings are discussed in light of social identity theories and intergroup perspectives.

When are intergroup attitudes judged as free speech and when as prejudice? A social identity analysis of attitudes towards immigrants.

Although anti-immigrant attitudes continue to be expressed around the world, identifying these attitudes as prejudice, truth or free speech remains contested. This contestation occurs, in part, because of the absence of consensually agreed-upon understandings of what prejudice is. In this context, the current study sought to answer the question, "what do people understand to be prejudice?" Participants read an intergroup attitude expressed by a member of their own group (an "in-group" member) or another group (an "out-group" member). This was followed by an interpretation of the attitude as either "prejudiced" or "free speech." This interpretation was also made by in-group or an out-group member. Subsequent prejudice judgements were influenced only by the group membership of the person expressing the initial attitude: the in-group member's attitude was judged to be less prejudiced than the identical attitude expressed by an out-group member. Participants' judgements of free speech, however, were more complex: in-group attitudes were seen more as free speech than out-group attitudes, except when an in-group member interpreted those attitudes as prejudice. These data are consistent with the Social Identity Approach to intergroup relations, and have implications for the processes by which intergroup attitudes become legitimised as free speech instead of prejudice.

“United in diversity”: The interplay of social network characteristics and personality in predicting outgroup attitudes

Diversity in social relations is important for reducing prejudice. Yet, the question of when this occurs remains open. Using a social network approach, we test whether the link between outgroup attitudes and number of intra- and intergroup contacts is moderated by type of relationship (strong vs. weak ties) and personality (openness to experience) while also considering network structure (connections between contacts). In a culturally diverse sample of 122 immigrants residing in Barcelona, positive outgroup attitudes were predicted by several network characteristics: low proportion of intragroup contacts and high proportion of intergroup contacts among strong ties, high ethnic diversity among strong ties, low connectedness among contacts in the country of origin, and high connectedness between coethnic local and host national contacts. Openness to experience moderated these effects. These results affirm the intergroup benefits of having compositionally and structurally diverse networks, and the gain in examining intergroup dynamics at the meso level of analysis.

Extended Intergroup Contact and Outgroup Attitude of Students in Public and Religious Homogeneous Schools: Understanding the Mediating Role of Ingroup Norms, Outgroup Norms, and Intergroup Anxiety

Previous studies had shown the benefits of extended intergroup contact for outgroup attitude, mainly when direct intergroup contact is blocked. However, there have not studies that attempt to directly compare the role of extended contact in outgroup attitude across different contexts. The present study aimed to fill the gap by examining the relationship of extended intergroup contact and outgroup attitude in three different contexts: public schools, moderate Islamic Boarding School, and fundamentalist Islamic Boarding School. These schools differ in the level of group heterogeneity. Possible mechanisms that could explain the relationship were also examined: ingroup norms, outgroup norms, and intergroup anxiety. Two correlational studies were conducted to test the hypotheses—study 1 employed 126 Muslim public high school students employed as participants, study 2 employed 112 participants from a more fundamentalist Islamic Boarding School and 230 participants from a more moderate Islamic Boarding Schools. Across studies, we found evidence that extended intergroup contact indirectly predicted outgroup attitude. However, different social contexts involve different mechanisms. This difference is attributed to direct intergroup contact.

A matter of flexibility: Changing outgroup attitudes through messages with negations.

Attitudes toward outgroups are an important determinant of peaceful coexistence in diverse societies, but it is difficult to improve them. The current research studies the impact of messages with negations on outgroup attitudes, more specifically on outgroup trust. All studies were preregistered. Using different target groups, Studies 1 and 2 provide evidence for the prediction that communicating negations (e.g., "they are not deceptive") enhances outgroup trust (more so than affirmations, such as "they are reliable," and no messages) among people who are initially low in outgroup trust. Three additional studies (Studies 3a, 3b, and 4), using both a causal chain approach and (moderated) mediation analysis, demonstrate that negations promote cognitive flexibility which in turn enhances outgroup trust among those initially low in outgroup trust. One final study suggests that these findings generalize to outgroup attitude change per se by showing that communicating negations also results in more moderate attitudes when the dominant initial attitude is positive (Study 5: high warmth) rather than negative (Studies 1-4: low trustworthiness). As such, communication that negates people's initial outgroup attitudes could be an effective (previously discounted) intervention to reduce prejudice in intergroup settings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

The (Null) Effects of Happiness on Affective Polarization, Conspiracy Endorsement, and Deep Fake Recognition: Evidence from Five Survey Experiments in Three Countries

Affective polarization is a key concern in America and other democracies. Although past evidence suggests some ways to minimize it, there are no easily applicable interventions that have been found to work in the increasingly polarized climate. This project examines whether irrelevant factors, or incidental happiness more specifically, have the power to reduce affective polarization (i.e., misattribution of affect or “carryover effect”). On the flip side, happiness can minimize systematic processing, thus enhancing beliefs in conspiracy theories and impeding individual ability to recognize deep fakes. Three preregistered survey experiments in the US, Poland, and the Netherlands (total N = 3611) induced happiness in three distinct ways. Happiness had no effects on affective polarization toward political outgroups and hostility toward various divisive social groups, and also on endorsement of conspiracy theories and beliefs that a deep fake was real. Two additional studies in the US and Poland (total N = 2220), also induced anger and anxiety, confirming that all these incidental emotions had null effects. These findings, which emerged uniformly in three different countries, among different partisan and ideological groups, and for those for whom the inductions were differently effective, underscore the stability of outgroup attitudes in contemporary America and other countries.

Measuring Anti-Indigenous Attitudes: The Indigenous Resentment Scale

This paper presents a novel Indigenous resentment scale to measure anti-Indigenous attitudes in settler-colonial societies. I draw from existing quantitative research on measuring outgroup attitudes, Indigenous philosophy, and settler-colonial scholarship to develop a concept and measure of settlers’ resentment toward Indigenous peoples (settlers’ “Indigenous resentment”) with high construct validity. I test the Indigenous resentment scale using original and nationally representative survey data. I conduct a reliability analysis and use statistical learning techniques to show that the Indigenous resentment scale is internally consistent and unidimensional, and has high theoretical construct validity. As I show, the Indigenous resentment scale is a strong predictor of social avoidance behaviors and significantly predicts opposition to government policies designed to help Indigenous peoples. I explain how the Indigenous resentment scale improves upon existing attempts to measure anti-Indigenous attitudes and discuss the usefulness of the scale in social scientific research.

Investigating the role of E‐contact and self‐disclosure on improving Turkish‐Kurdish interethnic relations

AbstractWhile recent research has started to pay more attention to the role of contact strategies on promoting intergroup harmony between Turkish and Kurdish communities, the effectiveness of a novel form of indirect contact strategy, E‐contact—where participants engage in a cooperative and structured online interaction with an individual from the outgroup—has not yet been tested. Across two studies (NStudy 1 = 110, NStudy 2 = 176), we investigated the effects of E‐contact among Turks on promoting positive attitudes and behavioral tendencies toward Kurds, testing outgroup trust and intergroup anxiety as mediators and incorporating a distinction between lower and higher self‐disclosure conditions. As expected, E‐contact led to more positive outgroup attitudes, as well as greater approach tendencies and decreased avoidance tendencies through increased outgroup trust (Studies 1 and 2) and reduced intergroup anxiety (Study 2). Study 2 also found that E‐contact produced lower perceived interethnic conflict through increased outgroup trust. While both lower and higher personal disclosure conditions provided similar effects in the two studies, E‐contact with heightened self‐disclosure was especially effective at promoting more positive outgroup attitudes and reducing avoidance tendencies. Findings highlight potential benefits of using E‐contact as a prejudice‐reduction strategy in conflict settings.

The Liberalization of American Attitudes to Homosexuality and the Impact of Age, Period, and Cohort Effects

Abstract Prior analyses of age, period, and cohort effects in American attitudes to homosexuality have resulted in conflicting findings. I show that this is due to insufficient attention to the statistical identification problem facing such analyses. By means of more than four decades worth of survey data and two attitudinal measures taping social tolerance of homosexuality, I demonstrate that the conflicting results of prior research can be explained by differences in the implicit and unsubstantiated assumptions made to ensure model identification. To make up for the lack of attention to these assumptions in prior work, I discuss which age, period, and cohort effects we might expect to see based on prior knowledge about the case at hand, socialization theory, and research on how aging affects outgroup attitudes. On that basis, I also discuss which conclusions about age, period, and cohort effects we can actually draw in the case at hand. On a more general level, this article joins a growing literature that cautions against age-period-cohort analysis that does not give sufficient attention to theoretical expectations and side information when making the identifying assumptions on which the analysis must unavoidably rest.

Intolerant of being tolerant? Examining the impact of intergroup toleration on relative left frontal activity and outgroup attitudes

Increases in cultural and religious diversity have led to calls for toleration of differences, although it is unclear how calling for toleration impacts people’s affective and attitudinal responses. The present research conducted in a small western nation examines if calling for toleration of Muslim minority practices elicits an aggressive backlash against the group amongst those relatively conservative, using relative left frontal EEG activity to examine the motivational processes involved. Non-Muslim participants from New Zealand (N = 172) self-reported their political orientation before being randomly assigned to a toleration or control condition involving writing and reflection tasks about Muslims. Participants then evaluated various groups including Muslims while EEG was recorded. Results revealed that among those relatively conservative, toleration produced higher levels of relative left frontal activity, which in turn led to more negative evaluations of Muslims (relative to control participants). However, for those relatively liberals, toleration had no impact on neuropsychological or attitudinal responses relative to controls. Collectively, these findings suggest that intergroup toleration may backfire amongst those relatively conservative, undermining its intended purpose.

Virtual Reality and Political Outgroup Contact: Can Avatar Customization and Common Ingroup Identity Reduce Social Distance?

This study ( N = 217) explores the potential for virtual reality to decrease social distance toward outgroup members among women. Raising the salience of individuals’ real physical identity through avatar customization and common ingroup identity manipulations was theorized to influence social distance. Participants who customized an avatar to resemble their real selves showed increased social distance. However, avatar customization also increased user identifiability, which was linked to reduced social distance. Priming a common ingroup identity increased identity salience but did not influence social distance. In examining heterogeneous effects by prior levels of issue involvement, participants with high and moderate involvement with immigration showed increased social distance after customizing an avatar to resemble their real selves, thus implying boomerang effects. The study discusses how avatar customization, identifiability, and common ingroup primes in virtual encounters may influence outgroup attitudes and intergroup relations.

Exploring religiosity and attitudes towards Christians and non-believers among recent Muslim refugees to Finland

This study is among the first to investigate the religiosity patterns, identity motives and attitudes towards Christians and non-believers among recent Muslim refugees in Finland (N = 128). There are two novelties in this study. First, it applies the religious orientation framework to study religious identities among Muslim refugees in Europe. Second, it combines a variable- and person-centred approach to study religiosity in the context of intergroup relations. Using the variable-centred approach with a multiple mediation analysis, we found that refugees’ extrinsic religiosity was associated with more positive attitudes towards Christians. Neither intrinsic religiosity nor participants’ religious identity motives were associated with out-group attitudes. Using the person-centred approach with a Two-Step cluster analysis, we showed that individuals with higher levels of intrinsic as compared to extrinsic religiosity and those with pronounced religious identity motives were more biased towards non-believers than towards Christians. Attitudes towards Christians and non-believers were similarly positive in a group characterised by equal levels of intrinsic and extrinsic religiosity. We discuss these findings in light of the role of religiosity in understanding Muslim refugees’ attitudes towards receiving societies.

Two sides of social integration: Effects of exposure and friendships on second- and third-generation immigrant as well as majority youth’s intergroup attitudes

To gain insights into social integration of second- and third-generation immigrant youth in Dutch secondary schools, we examined the two sides: immigrant youth’s attitudes toward the societal majority and the societal majority youth’s attitudes toward immigrants, while taking into account immigrant youth’s diverse cultural backgrounds. The sample included Dutch-born Turkish (n = 187), Moroccan (n = 188), and Surinamese (n = 164) adolescents as well as societal majority youth (n = 2,141) across 169 classrooms in 92 Dutch secondary schools. School-based exposure to, and friendships with relevant out-group classmates were examined separately as predictors of out-group attitudes. Also, the mediational function of out-group friendships, i.e., immigrant respectively societal majority, on the association between exposure and attitudes was tested. The results varied between immigrant and societal majority youth, as well as across the cultural groups. Overall, out-group exposure was found to benefit all immigrant adolescents’ attitudes toward the societal majority. For societal majority adolescents, however, the association between exposure, friendships and attitudes differed based on the relevant out-group. This study highlights the nuances between immigrant groups and between immigrant and societal majority groups’ attitudes toward one another.

Reducing prejudice toward Syrian refugee children: A vicarious contact intervention among Turkish elementary school children.

We conducted an experimental intervention to test the effectiveness of vicarious contact in the relationship between Turkish and Syrian elementary school children; the participants were Turkish children. We used a mixed-methods approach, investigating effects by using both quantitative and qualitative methodologies. Participants in the experimental condition were asked to read stories on positive contact between Turkish and Syrian children over the course of six weekly sessions. The results revealed that vicarious contact, compared to a control condition where participants did not engage in any activity, led to greater intentions to help outgroup members. Importantly, effects only emerged among children who reported higher initial negative outgroup attitudes. Results from qualitative data revealed that vicarious contact produced richer, more positive, and complex representations of the relationships and friendships between groups. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.

Parallel empathy and group attitudes in late childhood: The role of perceived peer group attitudes

ABSTRACT Although several studies have examined outgroup empathy, the link between trait empathy and outgroup attitudes has been underinvestigated. In the present study this link was investigated among two samples of ethnic Dutch preadolescents (N = 335, Mage = 10.83 years, SD = 0.94; 53% girls; N = 326; Mage = 10.53 years, SD = 1.03; 48% girls). It examined children’s parallel empathy in relation to their ethnic attitudes, and the moderating role of perceived peer norms. Results (partly) support the hypotheses that empathy is associated with more outgroup positivity and less ingroup bias (ingroup minus outgroup attitude). The negative link between empathy and outgroup bias was stronger when peers were perceived to be more biased against the outgroup.