Diskuze v psychologii 2020, 2(2):48-56 | DOI: 10.5507/dvp.2020.010

Identifying intergroup threats in the attitudes of young Slovaks toward ethnic minorities

Dóra Belán1, Miroslav Popper2
1 Institute for Research in Social Communication, SAS, Dúbravská cesta 9, 841 04 Bratislava 4, Slovak Republic
2 Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Mlynské luhy 4, 821 05 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Perceived threats from out-groups play a significant role in negative intergroup relations. The aim of our study was to explore what types of threats young Slovaks feel from three out-groups: immigrants from African and Arab countries, the Roma, and Slovak Hungarians. By conducting six focus groups (N = 42) with university students (M = 22), we identified several concerns about these out-groups. We found out that they can be categorized into four threat types in line with Stephan et al. (2009): (1) symbolic group threats, (2) symbolic individual threats, (3) realistic group threats, and (4) realistic individual threats. However, we identified threats which have not been identified in previous threat literature, e. g. language barrier, sexual harassment, and annoyance, or were not researched as threat, e. g. theft, abuse of social system, and lack of trust. Therefore, we aim to develop a new measure which allows researchers to focus on a broader scale of perceived threats in prejudice reduction. As we have explored different concerns posed by different out-groups, we argue that in prejudice reduction it is important to focus on those threats that are felt by the majority from a particular out- group, and not to perceive intergroup threat as one general factor.

Keywords: intergroup threat; attitudes; ethnic minorities; university students

Published: April 11, 2021  Show citation

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Belán D, Popper M. Identifying intergroup threats in the attitudes of young Slovaks toward ethnic minorities. Diskuze v psychologii. 2020;2(2):48-56. doi: 10.5507/dvp.2020.010.
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