Threat can redirect hostility toward unrelated weaker outgroups

Evidence

In some cases, threat leads to direct hostility against the outgroup that is closely related to the source of the threat. For instance, research has shown that men who experienced a threat to their gender identity are especially likely to sexually harass a female confederate (Maass, Cadinu, Guarnieri, & Grasselli, 2003). However, in other cases, threat may lead to displaced hostility against an outgroup that is unrelated to the source of the threat. In an experiment illustrating this point, psychology students whose status was threatened by an outgroup (medical students) subsequently discriminated against another, lower-status outgroup (social work students) (Cadinu & Reggiori, 2002). — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 20

Categorization

• SEED: Essay angle: displaced hostility explains why economic anxiety gets aimed at scapegoat minorities rather than the actual cause.
• XREF: connects to: Outbidders may damage a peace process only as a byproduct of attacking intragroup rivals. — Cathy Gormley-Heenan and Roger Macginty, Ethnic Outbidding and Party…, 31; Removing a named external threat intensifies rather than softens dominant-group nationalism. — Nadim N. Rouhana and Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, When Politics Are Sacralized:…, 1391; A manufactured enemy works best against groups that reject the unifying cause — John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of…, 1297 (+4 more)

Related

• Perceived outgroup threats damage intergroup relations even without hostility (similarity 0.82)
• Common external threats can reduce prejudice among ordinary outgroups (similarity 0.82)
• Perceived threat amplifies both in-group favoritism and out-group hostility (similarity 0.81)
• Equal-status group threat effects remain unexplored (similarity 0.81)
• Distinctiveness threats shift outgroup behavior but barely affect outgroup judgments. (similarity 0.81)
• Threat effects on attitudes are stronger for low-status than high-status outgroups (similarity 0.81)
• Intergroup threats may not be necessary for ingroup love to drive outgroup hate (similarity 0.81)
• Uncertain, unfamiliar, low-power settings maximize perceived outgroup threat. (similarity 0.81)
• Threat-driven cognitive biases facilitate and justify intergroup violence (similarity 0.80)
• Outbidders may damage a peace process only as a byproduct of attacking intragroup rivals. (similarity 0.80)
• External threat makes groups punish their own deviants harder (similarity 0.80)
• Intergroup threat and negative outgroup attitudes relate bidirectionally, not one-way. (similarity 0.80)
• Groups are perceived as more threatening than individuals, so dissolving category boundaries lowers threat. (similarity 0.80)
• Different outgroup types provoke distinct kinds of threat (similarity 0.80)
• Threat dynamics among status-equal groups remain unexamined. (similarity 0.80)