Ecological and cultural factors underlying the global distribution of prejudice

PLOS ONE • Vol/Iss. 14(9) • Public Library of Science • • Published In • Pages: e0221953 •
By Jackson, Joshua C., van Egmond, Marieke, Choi, Virginia K., Ember, Carol R., Halberstadt, Jasmin, Balanovic, Jovana, Basker, Inger N., Boehnke, Klaus, Buki, Noemi, Fischer, Ronald, Fülöp, Marta, Fulmer, Ashley, Homan, Astrid C., van Kleef, Gerben A., Kreemers, Loes, Schei, Vidar, Szabo, Erna, Ward, Colleen, Gelfand, Michele J.

Abstract

This article explores the following questions: What environmental and cultural factors might explain variation in prejudice across cultures? Do these factors explain the intention to vote for nationalist politicians? The authors perform seven studies, focusing on the link between cultural tightness and the rise of prejudice in cultures. They theorize that cultural tightness is positively correlated with the rise of prejudice against people perceived as disrupting the social order. From this theory, they suggest three hypotheses: 1) cultural variation in tightness is related to cultural variation in prejudice, 2) cultural tightness is related to the support for nationalist politicians, and 3) cultural tightness is a link between ecological threats and prejudice. The results support these hypotheses, offering a cultural evolutionary perspective on prejudice.

Samples

Sample Used Coded Data Comment
Standard Cross Cultural Sample (SCCS)Researchers' own47 non-industrial societies, using Ross's cross-cultural codes of hostility and acceptability of violence towards other communities
World Values Survey (WVS)CombinationData on prejudice in 25 current-day nations
Gelfand et al. (2011)CombinationData on historical population density in 1500, food deprivation, years of life lost to communicable disease, vulnerability to disaster, and historical territorial conflicts from 25 countries
General Social Survey (GSS)Researchers' ownData on prejudice from all 50 U.S. federal states (1973 to 2010)
Project ImplicitResearchers' ownImplicit association tests from 3,855,737 US residents (2002-2016), related to homophobia and racism
Qualtrics panelsResearchers' ownRecruited 1049 people from Germany, Singapore, USA, and Brazil
Survey (Study 7)Researchers' own320 French respondents during the 2017 France elections
Survey (Study 6)Researchers' own562 Americans during the US 2016 elections using a panel method

Hypotheses (3)

HypothesisSupported
Higher cultural tightness is correlated with higher prejudice toward other groups of people.Supported
Cultural tightness is a mediator between ecological threat and prejudice.Supported
Ecological threats, prejudice, and cultural tightness will be positively associated with the support of nationalist political candidates.Supported
Documents and Hypotheses Filed By: stefania.becerralavado