The association between actual and perceived ethnic diversity: The moderating role of authoritarianism and implications for outgroup threat, anxiety, and mistrust

Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The present study investigated the role of authoritarianism in the association between the actual proportion of ethnic minorities (objective diversity) within a neighborhood and majority members' subjective perception thereof (perceived diversity). Additionally, we tested how authoritarianism affects the direct and indirect relationships between objective diversity and outgroup threat, anxiety, and mistrust. Analyses in a nationally stratified sample of Dutch citizens (N = 848) without migration background from 706 different neighborhoods showed that higher levels of authoritarianism have a dual effect on the relationship between objective diversity and negativity towards outgroups. In particular, authoritarianism (i) boosts the indirect relationship between objective diversity and greater outgroup negativity through perceived diversity, and (ii) curbs the direct association of objective diversity with reduced outgroup negativity. These findings shed light on how majority members with different levels of authoritarianism differentially perceive diversity in their neighborhood, and how this relates to their responses to ethnic minorities.status: publishe

Chauvinism and patriotism in 22 countries

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Extreme right-wing voting in Western Europe

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Exclusion of legal migrants in Western Europe

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Introduction: Nationalism and exclusionist reactions

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Ethnic Exclusionism in European Countries : Public Opposition to Civil Rights for Legal Migrants as a Response to Perceived Ethnic Threat

In this paper we focus on opposition among European citizens to the granting of civil rights to legal migrants, a phenomenon considered to be a crucial aspect of ethnic exclusionism. We set out to establish to what extent differences in support of ethnic exclusionism can be explained in terms of effects of particular (a) individual and (b) contextual characteristics, and in terms of (c) interactions between contextual and individual characteristics. We have systematically derived hypotheses from Ethnic Competition Theory. We used cross-national comparable data from 15 European countries and performed multi-level analyses (total N = 12,728). We found that people living in individual competitive conditions perceive ethnic out-groups as a threat, and that this in turn reinforces ethnic exclusionism. Contextual competitive conditions, particularly the presence of non-EU citizens, also affect ethnic exclusionism.