The topic of immigration has been an important issue that is contently being discussed in American culture today. Immigration is one of the important social issues throughout modern history. The causes of immigration have occurred during among the rich nation states in today’s time (e.g., Europe and USA) and result in changing employment opportunities, population increases, and the actions of the states themselves to become involved (Stephan et al., 2005). The issue of immigration causes many problems within the host country, such as the prejudice and hostility of citizens in the host country towards immigration groups. The cause of prejudice and hostility towards immigrants has many researchers and theorists come up with ideas on why people
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In current research on the two main types of theories that are used to explain the attitudes towards immigrants, are Social Justification Theory (SJT) and Integrated Threat Theory (ITT). SJT is a theory that system-justifying beliefs serve as a psychological function, in which it proposes that people have several underlying need, which varies from individual to individual (Jost et al., 2003). ITT attempts to describe the components that cause the perceived threat to different social groups (Esses et al., 1998). ITT classifies threats into four major types: realistic threat, symbolic threat, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes (Riek et al., 2006). These two theories helped us with our hypothesis for the present study, that SJT relates to ITT through the attitudes of …show more content…
Symbolic threat is similar to the ideas underlying symbolic racism, where threat arises from a conflict of values, norms, and beliefs (Riek et al., 2006). Symbolic threat is the extent to which people perceive larger or greatly valued differences between groups. Stephan et al., (2000) study showed that symbolic threat was a strong predictor of attitudes towards women. Also, in Riek et al., (2006) meta-analysis show that symbolic threats have also provided an alternative explanation for biases against immigrants. Current studies also, consisted that realistic and symbolic threat can be viewed together on attitudes towards outgroups. Stephan et al., (2000) study, found out that realistic and symbolic threat is viewed as antecedents to prejudice, which is conceptualized as a negative affective and evaluative response to
In current research on the two main types of theories that are used to explain the attitudes towards immigrants, are Social Justification Theory (SJT) and Integrated Threat Theory (ITT). SJT is a theory that system-justifying beliefs serve as a psychological function, in which it proposes that people have several underlying need, which varies from individual to individual (Jost et al., 2003). ITT attempts to describe the components that cause the perceived threat to different social groups (Esses et al., 1998). ITT classifies threats into four major types: realistic threat, symbolic threat, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes (Riek et al., 2006). These two theories helped us with our hypothesis for the present study, that SJT relates to ITT through the attitudes of …show more content…
Symbolic threat is similar to the ideas underlying symbolic racism, where threat arises from a conflict of values, norms, and beliefs (Riek et al., 2006). Symbolic threat is the extent to which people perceive larger or greatly valued differences between groups. Stephan et al., (2000) study showed that symbolic threat was a strong predictor of attitudes towards women. Also, in Riek et al., (2006) meta-analysis show that symbolic threats have also provided an alternative explanation for biases against immigrants. Current studies also, consisted that realistic and symbolic threat can be viewed together on attitudes towards outgroups. Stephan et al., (2000) study, found out that realistic and symbolic threat is viewed as antecedents to prejudice, which is conceptualized as a negative affective and evaluative response to