Ambivalent stereotypes link to peace, conflict, and inequality across 38 nations - PubMed (original) (raw)

. 2017 Jan 24;114(4):669-674.

doi: 10.1073/pnas.1611874114. Epub 2017 Jan 9.

Susan T Fiske 2, Michele J Gelfand 3, Franca Crippa 4, Chiara Suttora 4, Amelia Stillwell 5, Frank Asbrock 6, Zeynep Aycan 7, Hege H Bye 8, Rickard Carlsson 9, Fredrik Björklund 10, Munqith Dagher 11, Armando Geller 12, Christian Albrekt Larsen 13, Abdel-Hamid Abdel Latif 14, Tuuli Anna Mähönen 15, Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti 15, Ali Teymoori 16

Affiliations

Federica Durante et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2017.

Abstract

A cross-national study, 49 samples in 38 nations (n = 4,344), investigates whether national peace and conflict reflect ambivalent warmth and competence stereotypes: High-conflict societies (Pakistan) may need clearcut, unambivalent group images distinguishing friends from foes. Highly peaceful countries (Denmark) also may need less ambivalence because most groups occupy the shared national identity, with only a few outcasts. Finally, nations with intermediate conflict (United States) may need ambivalence to justify more complex intergroup-system stability. Using the Global Peace Index to measure conflict, a curvilinear (quadratic) relationship between ambivalence and conflict highlights how both extremely peaceful and extremely conflictual countries display lower stereotype ambivalence, whereas countries intermediate on peace-conflict present higher ambivalence. These data also replicated a linear inequality-ambivalence relationship.

Keywords: ambivalence; conflict; inequality; peace; stereotypes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.

Fig. 1.

US cluster analysis. Stars indicate cluster centroids. C, competence; H, high; L, low; W, warmth. A regression line is plotted. The United States has an intermediate (peace-conflict) GPI score of 2.056 and shows stereotype ambivalence (W-C r = 0.11).

Fig. 2.

Fig. 2.

Pakistan cluster analysis. Stars indicate cluster centroids. M, medium. A regression line is plotted. Pakistan has a high-conflict GPI score of 3.106 and shows low stereotype ambivalence (W-C r = 0.92).

Fig. 3.

Fig. 3.

Denmark cluster analysis. Stars indicate cluster centroids. A regression line is plotted. Denmark has a low-conflict GPI score of 1.193 and shows low stereotype ambivalence (W-C r = 0.58).

Fig. 4.

Fig. 4.

GPI coefficients and raw W-C correlations. A curvilinear (quadratic) pattern is significant (Table 1). UCB, Universidad Catolica Boliviana; UMSA, Universidad Mayor de San Andres; UPB, Universidad Privada Boliviana; UPB-CB, Universidad Privada Boliviana-Cochabamba.

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