Understanding the causes of prejudice is the first step to finding solutions for this societal problem, say a husband and wife research team at New Mexico State University. Walter and Cookie Stephan found that one major cause of prejudice is fear, which can result from real or perceived threats. By studying the components of fear, they hope to help combat prejudice with better programs to improve intergroup relations.

The Stephans have determined that the existence of different types of threats often predicts feelings of prejudice. The four types of threats they have identified are realistic threats, symbolic threats, intergroup anxiety and negative stereotypes.

Realistic threats are the perception by one group (the ingroup) that the other group (the outgroup) poses a risk to their safety, economy, politics, health or well-being, said Walter Stephan, a professor of psychology at NMSU. One example of a realistic threat is Americans' fear that they may lose jobs to immigrants, he said.

Symbolic threats are perceived challenges to the ingroup's world view, including basic values, beliefs and way of life, said Stephan. This includes the fear that immigration is undermining American culture. For both these threats, he said, "To the degree you think your group's interests are being threatened, you will be prejudiced toward the other group."

Intergroup anxiety, which seems to be the strongest of the four threats, deals with feelings the ingroup's members experience when interacting with other groups, Stephan said. They often worry about the encounter, anticipating negative reactions from the outgroup, such as rejection, ridicule or hostility, he said.

The final threat the team has identified is negative stereotypes, which usually attribute negative traits, like dishonesty or lack of intelligence, to the outgroup. This leads the ingroup to expect negative behavior from outgroup members, they said, which in turn causes anxiety and fear and creates perceptions of threat.

The concept of perception of threat is particularly important, said Cookie Stephan, a sociology professor at NMSU. Psychologists traditionally have studied real threats, but sociologists believe the accuracy of the perceptions doesn't matter, she said. "If people perceive something to be real, it is real in its consequences," she said. "Perceptions influence behavior."

In developing their integrated threat model, she said, they have combined their different theoretical perspectives. They believe that is one reason they have developed a more complete model of how fear causes prejudice, including several components that previously had been considered separately. "For years researchers have studied symbolic threats versus realistic threats," she said. "We have combined those. It's not either-or, but both."

Their theory has been tested in studies of the threats posed by immigrant groups in the United States, Spain and Israel. They found support for their model in that the native participants who felt the most threatened, in all four ways, disliked the immigrant groups the most.

The researchers then studied the attitudes of subordinate groups and discovered that realistic threats were not a factor in attitudes toward the dominant group. This was not what they expected to find, they said, and proposed an explanation. In both the attitudes of Mexican nationals toward Americans and women toward men, they said, the members of the subordinate groups may perceive that their situation is unfair, but given the power differences feel they cannot change the situation.

The Stephans' integrated threat model has been developed through 20 years of research on prejudice between groups. Now they want to help determine the causes of threats and relate attitudes to behaviors. They plan to study factors that lead to feelings of threat, such as the amount and quality of previous contact with the outgroups, discrepancies in status or power between groups and personal relevance of the threats. They also will be using their model to try to explain some of the worst effects of prejudice, including hate crimes and genocide.

"The threat theory is not only valuable in conceptualizing the role of threat in intergroup relations," said Walter Stephan, "it can also be used as a basis for selecting techniques to overcome prejudice." A future project includes studying programs designed to improve intergroup relations, such as workplace diversity training and multicultural education for school children. They want to identify the best training methods for various situations. By improving intergroup relations through these programs they hope to eventually reduce the amount of violence and other problems caused by prejudice.

Ultimately, said Cookie Stephan, "if we could reduce fear and ignorance of other groups it would take us a long way toward overcoming prejudice."

Rachel Kendall

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