Values and Hostile Intent Attribution to Out-Groups within China-Apan Relations: The Mediating Role of Perceived Threats

Abstract

This study examines a specific effect of hostile intent attribution within intergroup relationships. Based on our application of integrated threat theory, we hypothesised that different types of symbolic and realistic threats had a mediating effect on relations between basic human values (traditionalism and universalism) and hostile intent attribution. We conducted a survey among two university population samples of Chinese and Japanese respondents. The results for our first sample of Chinese undergraduate students (N = 201) revealed that both traditionalism and universalism predicted hostile intent attribution and that these relations were fully mediated by symbolic threats, but not by realistic threats. However, the results for the second sample of Japanese undergraduate students (N = 256) differed, indicating that traditionalism, but not universalism, predicted hostile intent attribution, and that this relation was fully mediated by both symbolic and realistic threats. In conclusion, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.