Investigation of evolutionary determinants of ethnic discrimination tendencies

Pehar, Lana. (2014). Investigation of evolutionary determinants of ethnic discrimination tendencies. Diploma Thesis. Filozofski fakultet u Zagrebu, Department of Psychology. [mentor Tadinac, Meri].

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to test the assumptions of the evolutionary outgroup male target hypothesis in Croatian social context. We examined the differences in discrimination tendencies against individuals of Serbian nationality depending on the gender of both 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. For research purposes, we constructed a scale adapted to measure discrimination tendencies against men and women of Serbian nationality. Results showed that participants of Croatian nationality generally expressed greater discrimination tendencies towards Serbian men than women and that Croatian men are more inclined to discriminate than Croatian women. Additional analysis on separate samples of Croatian men and women found that Croatian men had greater discrimination tendencies against Serbian men than women, while discrimination tendencies were unrelated to target gender in the sample of Croatian women. It was also shown that the tendency to discriminate against Serbian men is motivated by separate individual factors for Croatian men and women; the interaction of aggressiveness and perceived physical strength of Serbs in men, ie the interaction of fear of rape, perceived physical strength and attractiveness of Serbs in women.

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