White People Problems? White Privilege Beliefs Predict Attitudes Toward Confederate Symbols

Building upon Intergroup Threat Theory and research on group-level empathy, we tested the relationship between White privilege beliefs and White Americans’ attitudes toward Confederate symbols. In three experiments, participants induced to think about White privilege exhibited more opposition to Confederate symbols, perceived less realistic threat to their group’s power/resources and symbolic threat to their group’s values/identity from the prospect of these symbols being removed, and (in Study 2) felt more empathetic toward racial/ethnic minorities who may view these symbols. Further, a meta-analytic path analysis across studies demonstrated that the effect of White privilege reminders on opposition to Confederate symbols was driven by reduced realistic and symbolic threat, as well as greater outgroup empathy.

Signaling Sizeism

Pervasive stigma against fat people and evidence for its harmful health consequences highlight the need for a better understanding of people’s first-hand experiences of navigating the world with a stigmatized body size. Drawing on social identity threat theory, we conducted a mixed-method study with a qualitative examination of threat and safety cues as experienced by people who self-identify as overweight. In an online survey, 48 people who self-identified as overweight responded to open-ended prompts to describe how situational features of a setting signal weight-based threat and safety to them. Using thematic analysis, we identified several themes that characterized threat and safety cues. Particularly notable were inverse themes, such as structural exclusion versus structural accommodation and homogeneity of others versus general diversity, that highlighted how physical features of, and the people in, an environment positively or negatively impact fat people’s psychological experience. Moreover, we conducted exploratory deductive coding using a recent taxonomy of safety cues developed by Kruk and Matsick (in press). Results highlighted how weight-based stigma parallels and diverges from other cues of identity safety (e.g., by gender or race/ethnicity). We suggest knowledge about situational cues can inform interventions to mitigate threat and promote safety among both fat people and other stigmatized groups.

Race-Relations Theories and the Racial Dynamics of Basketball Performance

Does the local, racial context influence racial differences in culture? I answer this question by testing predictions from group threat theory and the cultural division of labor about which high schools have greater black-white differences in basketball performance. Data are from the National Education Longitudinal Study are analyzed with multilevel ordered probit models. After controlling for predictors of sports performance in students’ families, schools, and neighborhoods, we find evidence for both theories. Black-white differences in basketball performance is greater in schools that are about 50% black, as group threat predicts, and in schools with more hierarchical segregation within them, as the cultural division of labor predicts. We also find that racial conflict within the schools mediates the effect of group threat. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.

The Effect of Immigrant Integration Policies on Public Immigration Attitudes: Evidence from a Survey Experiment in the United Kingdom

Drawing on intergroup threat theory, this article argues that immigrant integration policies can improve public attitudes toward immigrants and, particularly, toward refugees and asylum-seekers. Examining evidence from an original survey experiment conducted in the United Kingdom, I find that support for admitting asylum-seekers increases when respondents are made aware that prospective asylum-seekers will be required to partake in language and civic-education courses. This effect is particularly strong among respondents who were more likely to perceive asylum-seekers as a symbolic threat (i.e., conservatives). Similarly, support for admitting asylum-seekers increases when respondents are told that future asylum-seekers will only have limited access to welfare. This effect is stronger among respondents who were more likely to view asylum-seekers as a material threat (i.e., conservatives and individuals with low socioeconomic status). These findings have important implications for the literatures on immigrant integration policies, intergroup threat theory, and public immigration attitudes generally. Importantly, the results reported in this article illustrate the significance of structural determinants for the study of immigration attitudes and demonstrate the importance of disaggregating immigrant integration policies when evaluating their effects.

GOING BLUE FROM RED – CHINESE ENGAGEMENT IN THE UN PEACEKEEPING OPERATIONS

This paper shall explore the reasons that triggered China to boost its security and economic influence within the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations (UNPKO) as a tool for embracing international challenges. By doing so, China is not just sharing the burden of providing international stability and achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, but exerting its influence in the process. Analysing the proposed subject, it will be demonstrated that China faces numerous obstacles whilst trying to insert the “Chinese characteristics” within the geopolitical order, geo-economics distribution of wealth and international security architecture. Instead of being perceived as a responsible stakeholder, China`s ambitious initiatives can, additionally, stir the China Threat Theory in the international community. This paper shall be consisted of two parts. The first part will tackle China`s growing footprint within the UNPKO from the end of the Cold War onward. The second part will explore the reasons that triggered China to swift its role within the UNPKO. Both global and domestic reasons will be analysed too.

Science through a tribal lens: A group-based account of polarization over scientific facts

Previous research has confirmed the prominent role of group processes in the promotion and endorsement of disinformation. We report three studies on a psychological framework derived from integrated threat theory—a psychological theory which describes how perceived threat leads to group polarization and prejudice—composed of the following constructs: group belongingness, perceived threat, outgroup derogation, and intergroup anxiety. Our pilot study suggested that need to belong and intergroup anxiety predict antiscientific beliefs (pseudoscientific, paranormal, and conspiracy theories), thus justifying the general applicability of integrated threat theory. Study 1 investigates the transition from weak to strong critical thinking regarding pseudoscientific doctrines. Besides greater outgroup derogation and perceived threats among strong critical thinkers, the model does not perform well in this context. Study 2 focuses on the intergroup conflict around anthropogenic global warming, revealing the strong predictive power of the model. These results are discussed in relation to the distinctive psychological profiles of science acceptance and rejection.

Fragmentation and Grievances as Fuel for Violent Extremism: The Case of Abu Musa’ab Al-Zarqawi

Violent extremism naturally benefits from any state of fragmentation. This article focuses on Iraq in a period of a staggering rise in terrorist attacks that started with “operation Iraqi Freedom.” The rhetoric of Abu Musa’ab Al-Zarqawi is used as a case study. Analyzing his statements between 2003 and 2006 shows his weaponization of the concepts of out-groups and threat; it is shown to have a temporaneous association between the escalating violence and successful mobilization. This highlights the saliency of these concepts, the crucial role of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs’ grievances, and the resulting societal fragmentations, which all play in Zarqawi’s efforts to mobilize his in-group. The use of Social Identity Theory and Integrated Threat Theory outlines Zarqawi’s rhetorical strategies in portraying his enemies, and therefore, exposes the rhetorical justifications behind his violent extremism. Results show, temporally, prominent implementation of out-group/threat in the rhetoric, the different out-groups in question, and the types of threats portrayed. In addition, this article concretely shows the effect of the allied forces/Iraqi government’s policies in fortifying Zarqawi’s rhetoric by way of adopting hostile and discriminatory measures against Sunni Arabs. This article also shows an undeniable dialectical relationship between societal fragmentation/grievances and violent-extremist rhetoric and returns the question to policy makers.

Economic inequality increases race salience in 6 million Tweets

Economic inequality brings multiple adverse consequences. These range from decreased trust in government, increased drug abuse and violence, and decreased societal cohesion. If and how economic inequality impacts online behaviors has received less attention. Here, we use a corpus of 6 million race tweets posted between 2012 and 2018 to determine the frequency and sentiment of tweets containing ethnic epithets and slurs across all 52 US states. Informed by Integrated Threat Theory, we tested whether inequality increased the use of slurs on social media for the purpose of denigrating other ethnic groups. Consistent with this, we found that states with greater inequality predicted increased use of racial epithets used to denigrate other groups. However, we also found that more unequal locales were positively correlated with increased use of ethnic words used in a positive way (potentially toward other ingroup members). As such, while inequality is correlated with more prejudicial behavior on social media, it may also increase the salience of ethnic group identity more broadly. Implications and future directions are discussed.

REACTION TO THE BLACK CITY AS A CAUSE OF MODERN CONSERVATISM

Social scientists in a variety of fields have long relied on economic-structuralist theories to understand the ascendance and hegemony of the modern Conservative Movement in the United States. In the materialist theory of political change (MTPC), structural crisis in the 1970s destabilized Keynesian-managerialism, and paved the way for neoliberalism. Key weaknesses of this approach include its relatively aspatial scope—comparatively less attention to the spatial variation of neoliberalism’s popularity—and its demotion of other elements of the Conservative Movement into a veritable super-structure of secondary movements. This paper offers a “racial amendment” to the MTPC, and an application to electoral geographies in the state of Ohio since 1932. This amendment synthesizes group threat theory, critical historiography, and Du Boisian theories of Whiteness to suggest that the growing influence of suburban conservatism is not reducible simply to class interest.

Sources of prejudice among police cadets toward foreigners: A test of intergroup threat theory

Literature in policing has mostly overlooked the antecedents of prejudice, especially those who choose a police career. Such a choice is important given the results of prejudice that might cause police misconduct toward regular migrants, irregular migrants, and refugees. This study aims to examine the factors that explain prejudice among police cadets toward other ethnic groups. This study’s data come from a survey of 725 police cadets in three police vocational schools in Turkey. We employed structural equation modeling to examine the antecedents of prejudice toward foreigners within the framework of intergroup threat theory. More specifically, in this study, we included factors such as anomie, authoritarianism, and nationalism and participants’ symbolic and realistic threat perceptions in shaping prejudice toward foreigners. The findings suggest that police cadets’ realistic threat perception was the most salient antecedent of prejudice toward foreigners.