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Threat effects on attitudes are stronger for low-status than high-status outgroups

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tagsja-picks, question, factual_claims, primary_study, corroborated, xref, category/factual-claims
aliases@riek_intergroup_2006, loc. 129

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Threat effects on attitudes are stronger for low-status than high-status outgroups

Evidence

It appears that realistic threat, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes are stronger predictors of outgroup attitudes toward low status rather than toward high status outgroups. This possibly explains why W. G. Stephan and colleagues (2002) found that an integrated threat model accounted for more of the variance in the attitudes of Whites toward Blacks than in the attitudes of Blacks toward Whites. For realistic threat, this effect may be due to high status group members’ perception that low status outgroups are trying to usurp their resources. This may be more aversive than not having resources in the first place, which could explain why the realistic threats posed by low status outgroups have a larger impact on attitudes than the threats from high status outgroups. — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 129

Outgroup status. Sixty-nine of the 95 samples were used in the moderator analysis for relative outgroup status. In the remaining cases relative status was not discernable. The status of the threatening outgroup moderated a number of the relationships between the specific intergroup threats and outgroup attitudes. A full description of these relationships is presented in Table 3.2 Unfortunately, because outgroup status was only discernable in 4 of the 11 samples utilized in the group esteem threat analysis, we were unable to examine whether status moderated this particular threat type. … Relative status moderated the relationship between anxiety and outgroup attitudes, QB(M) = 4.81, p < .05. When outgroups were of relatively low status (e.g., racial minorities, females) anxiety had a stronger relationship with outgroup attitudes than when outgroups were of relatively high status (e.g., Whites, males). Relative outgroup status was also a marginally significant moderator of the relationship between realistic threat and outgroup attitudes, QB(M) = 3.24, p = .07, and negative stereotypes and outgroup attitudes, QB(l) = 2.79, p = .09. In both cases, the relationship between the threat type and negative attitudes was stronger when the threatening outgroup was of lower status than when the outgroup was of higher status. — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 109

Although the relationship between intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes is stronger when a high status group is threatened by a lower status outgroup, than vice versa, it is unclear how threat will relate to attitudes when low status groups are threatened by other low status groups, or when high status group members are threatened by another high status group. For example, when racial minorities perceive realistic or symbolic threat from other minorities, will these threats impact attitudes to the same degree as when racial minorities are threatened by Whites? Because group status moderates the relationship between intergroup threat and attitudes among groups of unequal status, it would be useful to explore these relationships among groups of equal status. — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 152

Categorization

  • QUESTION: Opens an empirical gap: equal-status intergroup threat, relevant to the MOC thread about whether the friend/enemy membrane is constitutive or merely a political resource.
  • corroborated: 5 independent passages support this claim — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 129; Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 109; Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 152
  • XREF: connects to: Negative stereotypes both accompany intergroup threats and independently predict outgroup attitudes — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 127; Perceived outgroup threats damage intergroup relations even without hostility — Walter G. Stephan, Oscar Ybarra, Kimberly Rios Morrison, Intergroup Threat Theory, 38; Experimentally manipulated realistic threat shows far weaker attitude effects than measured threat — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 119 (+10 more)

Broader Connections

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