Ethnic prejudice(s) as attitudes: An eco-phenomenological view.

Abstract

An Eco-phenomenological view is offered as an alternative to existing psychological approaches to studying ethnic prejudice(s) as attitudes. Following classical social psychological theory (Asch, 1952; Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957), attitudes are conceptualized as subjective, meaning-based interpretations of ecological experience. Consistent with this perspective a number of attitude dimensions shown to be important to ethnic prejudice are identified in an integrative literature review. These dimensions are brought into a general attitude-based framework based in an application of Ajzen & Fishbein's (1977) principle of correspondence. Specific values, emotions, and beliefs, are causally ordered based on their level of specificity and contextual relevance to outcomes. In addition to the contextual relevance of outcomes, three other levels of ecological context are identified as important determinants of ethnic prejudice: society, outgroup, and social location. Accounting for these contextual factors suggests that there are multiple forms of ethnic prejudice (see Hall, 1980) rather than one universal and unitary phenomenon as is often assumed in psychological approaches. In two studies utilizing parallel experimental surveys, the eco-phenomenological framework was utilized to study ethnic prejudice(s)-as-attitudes. In study 1, ethnic French policy positions and attitudes toward North Africans and Southeast Asians (N = 1,001) were compared. In study 2, ethnic Dutch policy positions and attitudes toward the Turkish and Surinamers (N = 1,006) were compared. In support of the correspondence model, those attitude dimensions corresponding most closely to the policy positions in level of specificity were generally found to be the most important predictors. Results also suggested that both the specific society, target group, and outcome affected the attitudes predictive of policy position. Ethnic prejudice(s) thus appeared to be more contextual than most current psychological approaches allow. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed.