Citation

Greenaway KH, Louis WR, Hornsey MJ, Jones JM. Br. J. Soc. Psychol. 2013; 53(3): 422-442.

Affiliation

School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Wiley Blackwell)

DOI

10.1111/bjso.12049

PMID

24006898

Abstract

People sometimes show a tendency to lash out in a prejudiced manner when they feel threatened. This research shows that the relationship between threat and prejudice is moderated by people's levels of perceived control: Threat leads to prejudice only when people feel concurrently low in control. In two studies, terrorist threat was associated with heightened prejudice among people who were low in perceived control over the threat (Study 1; N = 87) or over their lives in general (Study 2; N = 2,394), but was not associated with prejudice among people who were high in perceived control. Study 3 (N = 139) replicated this finding experimentally in the context of the Global Financial Crisis. The research identifies control as an important ingredient in threatening contexts that, if bolstered, can reduce general tendencies to lash out under threat.

Language: en