Anti-immigrant prejudice and discrimination in Europe

Europe is a continent of immigration, emigration and internal migration. In this chapter, we review recent literature that demonstrates that immigrants to Europe face prejudice, discrimination, and violence. Levels of prejudice, discrimination and violence targeted at immigrants vary between European countries, over time and the particular immigrant group under scrutiny. Classical psychological explanations regarding causes and reasons for rejection are supported in the European context: These include dispositional influences, such as right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation; situational influences, such as high nationalistic identification, intergroup anxiety and threat, lack of contact; and macro-level influences, such as politics and media coverage. Based on the reviewed literature, we propose a model of micro-macro influences on prejudice, discrimination, and violence against immigrants that organizes the existing research and reveals important areas for future research, especially research investigating micro-macro interactions. Looking into the future, we criticize that the continuation of the current walling of Europe against immigrants will reinforce future processes of devaluation and dehumanization

Investigating the social embeddedness of criminal groups: Longitudinal associations between masculine honour and legitimizing attitudes towards the Camorra

The embeddedness of criminal groups within communities accrues from their ability to establish legitimacy, particularly among young people. A prototypical example are mafia claims to political authority in Italy. Intracultural Appropriation Theory proposes that embeddedness is partly derived from criminal groups’ ability to embody cultural ideologies of masculine honour, and to reinforce these ideologies in society through their actions. We tested these propositions using a three-wave longitudinal design involving Italian adolescents from the Campania region (N1stwave = 1,173). We also examined an alternative explanation rooted in individuals’ generic acceptance of group-based hierarchies, i.e., social dominance orientation. The longitudinal design enabled us to examine for the first time both between- and within-person processes. Between-person results indicated that higher levels of the masculine honour ideology and social dominance were associated with stronger legitimizing attitudes towards the Camorra, a mafia-type group. Within-person effects revealed a positive reciprocal association between masculine honour and legitimizing attitudes. These findings emphasize the importance of culture-specific ideologies in sustaining the legitimacy of criminal groups

Social evaluation at a distance – facets of stereotype content about student groups in higher distance education

In the academic domain, belonging to a negatively stereotyped group can impair performance and peer relationships. In higher distance education, stereotypes may be particularly influential as face-to-face contact is limited and non-traditional students who are at risk of being stereotyped are overrepresented. Still, research on stereotypes in higher distance education is sparse. The current research addresses this gap by investigating the Big Two of social perception (warmth, competence) and subordinate facets (friendliness, morality, assertiveness, ability, conscientiousness) in the context of higher distance education. It tests a) how well models with warmth/competence or the facets fit the data, b) whether stereotypes in higher distance education depend on the student group, and c) how the Big Two and subordinate facets predict intergroup emotions and behavioral intentions in higher distance education. An online survey with N = 626 students (74% female) of a large distance university showed that a measurement model with four facets (i.e., friendliness, morality, ability, conscientiousness) reveals adequate model fit for 12 student groups. Perceived stereotypes were positive for female students, older students, and students with children. However, migrant as well as younger students were perceived negatively. Across groups, stereotype content facets predicted intergroup emotions and behavioral intentions of facilitation or harm. Implications for the influence of negative stereotypes in higher distance education are discussed

Unobserved heterogeneity between individuals in Group-Focused Enmity

Group-focused enmity (GFE) and related research have mostly focused on variable-centred analyses such as structural equation modelling and factor analysis, implicitly assuming that the results apply uniformly to all participants in the sample. Person-centred research questions and analysis methods, which investigate unobserved heterogeneity in the sample, have been lacking in GFE research. Nonetheless, initial evidence exists from research on Islamophobia and GFE that various unobserved latent classes (i.e., subgroups) differing in their average prejudice can be identified within one dataset. In this manuscript, we applied factor mixture modelling to investigate unobserved heterogeneity using the data of the German GFE survey 2011. We found two latent classes of equivalent factor-analytical composition with consistently high versus low expressions of target-specific prejudice. No comparison of latent GFE means was possible. Membership in the high prejudice latent class was associated with higher age, right-wing political orientation, high right-wing authoritarianism and high social dominance orientation. Our findings demonstrate the importance of exploring unobserved heterogeneity in attitudes research and outline how person-centred research can complement variable-centred research in order to understand social-psychological phenomena

How do we get people into contact? Predictors of intergroup contact and drivers of contact seeking

Compared to the impressive amount of research on consequences of intergroup contact, relatively little work has been devoted to predictors of intergroup contact. Although opportunities for intergroup contact are constantly growing in modern diverse societies, these contact opportunities are not necessarily exploited. In the present review article, we describe current research on predictors of intergroup contact and drivers of contact seeking on a micro‐, meso‐, and macro‐level. We provide an overview of predictors, while focusing on recent research that is especially relevant for designing interventions and planning social policies aiming at increasing contact between different groups in varied societies. On the micro‐level, we discuss relational self‐expansion motives and confidence in contact as predictors of intergroup contact. On the meso‐level, we focus on the role of intragroup processes and historical intergroup conflicts in facilitating contact. On the macro‐level, we reflect on changing societal norms as a potential tool to increase the frequency intergroup contact. By focusing on the applied value of research findings, discussing diverse predictors, and applying a multilevel approach, we also address recent criticisms of the intergroup contact literature and demonstrate the generative nature of contemporary research in this area

Choose your words wisely: Stereotypes, emotions, and action tendencies toward fled people as a function of the group label

Abstract. Differences in word connotations can have far-reaching consequences. We investigated the content, and emotional and behavioral consequences of the social perception of fled people as a function of their label (“refugees” vs. “asylum seekers”; “war refugees” vs. “economic refugees” vs. “refugees”) using a factorial survey (n = 389). Based on qualitative data on perceived intentions associated with the labels, we deducted predictions regarding differences in the Stereotype Content Model and Behavior from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes Map. Participants evaluated refugees and asylum seekers similarly. Economic refugees were evaluated more negatively than war refugees or refugees, while the profiles of war refugees and refugees matched. These findings suggest that the choice of words to refer to fled people has profound consequences. </jats:p