The Role of Threats in the Racial Attitudes of Blacks and Whites

Abstract

This study employed the integrated threat theory of intergroup attitudes to examine the attitudes of Black and White students toward the other racial group. This theory synthesizes previous research on the relationships of threats to intergroup attitudes. Structural equation modeling revealed that for both racial groups, realistic threats, symbolic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted attitudes toward the other group. To varying degrees, the effects of negative contact, strength of ingroup identity, perceptions of intergroup conflict, perceived status inequality, and negative stereotyping on negative racial attitudes were mediated by the three threat variables. The model accounted for more variance in the negative attitudes of Whites toward Blacks than in the negative attitudes of Blacks toward Whites. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Political Tolerance and Prejudice: Differential Reactions Toward Muslims in the Netherlands

“…Among Dutch students, Velasco González and colleagues (2008) found that in-group identification was positively related with Islamophobia and this relationship was fully mediated by perceived symbolic threat. Among White and African American college students, Stephan et al (2002) found that in-group identification was positively related to racial attitudes and that this association was mediated by symbolic and realistic threats. In their meta-review, Riek, Mania, and Gaertner (2006) found that in-group identification had a significant impact on realistic and symbolic threat.…”

“…In his review, Gibson (2006) pointed out that perceived threat is the most important predictor of intolerance but that threat itself is an unexplained variable in nearly all studies on political tolerance. Integrated threat theory has suggested that threats mediate the impact of distal variables on attitudes toward out-groups (e.g., Corenblum & Stephan, 2001;Stephan et al, 2002). Three of these distal variables were examined in our study.…”

Intergroup threat gates social attention in humans

“…Intergroup threat refers to the perception of group members that another group may cause them harm [6]. The evidence from intergroup-threat research indicates that high-status groups pose more threat than low-status groups [7], and that masculine faces are more threatening than feminine faces [8].…”

Why Do Flemish Youth Participate in Right-Wing Disruptive Groups?

“…Perceptions of threat may endorse people to engage in violent activities to restore feelings of anxiety and threat. Three dimensions of perceived threat have been identified in the literature (Stephan et al, 2002, Doosje et al, 2013, i.e. symbolic threat, realistic threat and intergroup anxiety.…”