Abstract
Is it possible to change the negative public attitudes towards refugees? Which factors reinforce such attitudinal changes? Since the refugee population is growing in many countries, finding answers to these questions has become even more important. By focusing on the Turkish context, this study has two specific objectives. First, we aim to find out how – and to what extent – the individual level of prejudice towards the Syrian refugees differs when the refugees are depicted in either empathy or threat-evoking conditions. Second, we try to show the interaction between personal dispositions (authoritarianism) and situational factors (threat-evoking condition) and their explanatory power on the individuals’ prejudice towards the Syrian refugees. Towards this end, we conducted a survey experiment with 120 university students in May 2016. The empirical results show that while empathy evoking treatment leads to a decrease in prejudice, the threat-evoking one augments the biased attitudes towards the Syrian refugees. When the dispositional factors are included in the model, we observe that authoritarianism’s interaction with threat-evoking treatment significantly effects the prejudice levels.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 274-296 |
Number of pages | 23 |
Journal | Marmara Üniversitesi Siyasal Bilimler Dergisi = Journal of Political Science |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 30 Sept 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Title in Turkish: Türkiye’deki Suriyeli Mültecilere Yönelik Tutumların DeğişkenliğiÜzerine Deneysel Bir Çalışma.