engleski

Investigation of evolutionary determinants of ethnic discrimination tendencies

The evolutionary outgroup male target hypothesis posits that intergroup discrimination, as a highly gendered phenomenon, is primarily directed at outgroup males and motivated by separate psychological systems for men and women. The purpose of this study was to test the assumptions of the outgroup male target hypothesis in the Croatian social context in which individuals of Serbian nationality represented the target outgroup. Accordingly, we examined the differences in discrimination tendencies against individuals of Serbian nationality depending on the gender of the agents and the targets of discrimination. In separate samples of male and female participants, we also tested the moderating effects of several individual difference variables on the expressed level of discrimination tendencies. The study was conducted over the Internet, on a sample of 1077 participants of Croatian nationality. Participants generally expressed greater discrimination tendencies towards outgroup men than outgroup women, and male participants were more inclined to discriminate than female participants. Ingroup men also showed greater discrimination tendencies against outgroup men than outgroup women, while these tendencies were unrelated to target gender in the sample of ingroup women. Additional analysis of potential gender-specific moderators revealed that the tendency to discriminate against outgroup men is motivated by different individual variables for male and female participants: the interaction of personal aggressiveness and outgroup men’s perceived physical strength in men, i.e., the interaction of fear of rape, perceived physical strength and attractiveness of outgroup men in women. These results provide a preliminary support for the outgroup male target hypothesis in the Croatian context and suggest additional factors influencing male and female ethnic discrimination tendencies.

ethnic discrimination tendencies, sex differences, evolutionary psychology

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