Perception of minority toleration from the eyes of the majority: The role of perceived threat

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2749091_(Table of contents)

Although toleration of minorities may be seen as progressive for societies, recent research has shown that toleration may be costly for minority group members’ selfesteem as it implies being “put up with”. What is relatively less known is how majority group members perceive the toleration of minorities. In four studies, we examined a) whether majority group members distinguished toleration from discrimination and acceptance, b) how positively they evaluated different acts of toleration compared to discrimination and acceptance and in turn supported minority rights, and c) to what extent these perceptions depended on the level of outgroup threat. In Study 1 (N = 214), higher perceived threat from Syrian refugees was found to be associated with Turkish natives’ tendency to attribute acceptance to toleration. In studies 2 (N = 161, community sample - Syrian refugee target, high threat context) and 3 (N = 206, student sample - LGBTI target, low threat context), participants were given either a toleration, a discrimination, or an acceptance scenario. We showed that toleration was more likely to be attributed to "acceptance" than "discrimination" and was evaluated more positively in a high threat context. In study 4 (N = 150), we experimentally manipulated the threat of Muslims among Christians in the UK and found that toleration was rated as more favorable and in turn related to lower support of minorities in the high threat condition, whereas it was defined as discrimination and rated less favorably in the control condition. Overall findings indicate that for