Doctoral Dissertation Research: Anxiety and Ethnocentrism: Coalitional Psychology in Two Populations

University Of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

0242186 Fessler / Navarrete This dissertation research by an anthropology graduate student asks: 'How does culture interact with the innate psychological mechanisms that produce ethnocentrism?', and 'Why does adherence to in-group ideology increase in times of danger?' The project seeks to explain why people adhere to and tenaciously defend their worldviews. It tests the proposition that inclusion in cooperative ventures is premised on predictability, and predictability is a function of commonality in cultural values, therefore displays of ethnocentrism are tantamount to advertisements intended to recruit coalitional support from in-group members in times of need. Research will be conducted in two regions, urban Southern California and rural Costa Rica. These cultures differ along the dimension of individualism/collectivism, a factor predicted to influence the salience of different forms of threat. Investigations will combine qualitative ethnographic approaches with controlled psychological experiments to explore how culture, ideology, and individual differences in personality affect how people evaluate in-groups and out-groups in times of threat or social conflict. Broader impacts: The terrorist attacks of 9/11 as well as many of the genocidal wars of the last decade revolve around differences in worldviews, which manifest as violent ethnocentrism. By elucidating the psychological mechanisms that generate ethnocentrism and the cultural factors that exacerbate it, this project may provide diplomats, policy makers, and defense analysts with a firmer foundation on which to make decisions in the effort to avoid, ameliorate, or end violent conflicts that stem from cultural differences.