Previous research has shown conflicting findings on how population diversity influences outgroup prejudice. In some cases, prejudice is greater when minority groups make up a larger portion of the population, whereas in other cases, prejudice is lower as diversity increases. This article examined how the diversity of a culture’s ancestry—or its historical heterogeneity—would be related to outgroup attitudes. Historically heterogeneous populations descend from ancestors who have migrated from many parts of the world over the past 500 years and, as a result, have a longer legacy of contact with diverse groups of people. The results of two cross-cultural studies found that greater heterogeneity predicted lower levels of outgroup prejudice, and some evidence that diversity in the current population was related to increased prejudice. The findings suggest that intergroup attitudes have deeply entrenched roots that cannot be fully understood by looking at current indicators.
AllportG. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
2.
BisinA.VerdierT. (2001). The economics of cultural transmission and the dynamics of preferences. Journal of Economic Theory, 97, 298-319.
3.
BrewerM. B.MillerN. (1988). Contact and cooperation. In KatsP.TaylorD. (Eds.), Eliminating racism (pp. 315-326). Boston, MA: Springer.
4.
BrownR.HewstoneM. (2005). An integrative theory of intergroup contact. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 255-343.
5.
BurroughsW. J. (1997). Does the weather really matter? The social implications of climatic change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
6.
Camperio CianiA. S.CapiluppiC.VeroneseA.SartoriG. (2007). The adaptive value of personality differences revealed by small island population dynamics. European Journal of Personality, 21, 3-22.
7.
CarpenterS.ZarateM. A.GarzaA. A. (2007). Cultural pluralism and prejudice reduction. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 13, 83-93.
8.
ChristO.SchmidK.LolliotS.SwartH.StolleD.TauschN.. . . HewstoneM. (2014). Contextual effect of positive intergroup contact on outgroup prejudice. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111, 3996-4000.
9.
CohenD. (2001). Cultural variation: Considerations and implications. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 451-471.
10.
ConwayL. G.III.BongardK.PlautV.GornickL. J.DoddsD. P.GiresiT.. . . HouckS. C. (2017). Ecological origins of freedom: Pathogens, heat stress, and frontier topography predict more vertical but less horizontal governmental restriction. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 43, 1378-1398.
11.
CrispR. J.TurnerR. N. (2011). Cognitive adaptation to the experience of social and cultural diversity. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 242-266.
12.
DahlR. A.LindblomC. E. (1976). Politics, economics, and welfare. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
13.
DhontK.Van HielA.HewstoneM. (2014). Changing the ideological roots of prejudice: Longitudinal effects of ethnic intergroup contact on social dominance orientation. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17, 27-44.
14.
DiamondJ. (1997). Guns, germs, and steel: The fates of human societies. New York, NY: Norton.
15.
DorschM. T.MaarekP. (2019). Democratization and the conditional dynamics of income distribution. American Political Science Review, 113, 385-404.
16.
DuckittJ. H. (1992). Psychology and prejudice: A historical analysis and integrative framework. American Psychologist, 47, 1182-1193.
17.
DunnK.SinghS. P. (2014). Pluralistic conditioning: Social tolerance and effective democracy. Democratization, 21, 1-28.
18.
EllerA. L.AbramsD., (2004). Come together: Longitudinal comparisons of Pettigrew’s reformulated intergroup contact model and the Common Ingroup Model in Anglo-French and Mexican-American contexts. European Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 229-256.
19.
FieldingD. (2018a). Traditions of tolerance: The long-run persistence of regional variation in attitudes towards English immigrants. British Journal of Political Science, 48, 167-188.
20.
FieldingD. (2018b). 1066 and all that: Some deep determinants of voting shares in the 2016 referendum on EU membership. The World Economy, 41, 1131-1146.
21.
FincherC. L.ThornhillR. (2012). Parasite-stress promotes ingroup assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity. Behavioral and Brain Science, 35, 61-79.
22.
FlynnF. J. (2005). Having an open mind: The impact of openness to experience on interracial attitudes and impression formation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88, 816-826.
23.
FordW. S. (1986). Favorable intergroup contact may not reduce prejudice: Inconclusive journal evidence, 1960-1984. Sociology and Social Research, 70, 23-34.
24.
FosterD. H.FinchilescuG. (1986). Contact in a non-contact society: The case of South Africa. In HewstoneM.BrownR. (Eds.), Contact and conflict in intergroup encounters (pp. 119-136). Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
25.
HadlerM. (2012). The influence of world societal forces on social tolerance. A time comparative study of prejudices in 32 countries. The Sociological Quarterly, 53, 211-237.
26.
HeckR. H.ThomasS.TabataL. (2013). Multilevel modeling of categorical outcomes using IBM SPSS. New York, NY: Routledge.
27.
JhaS. (2013). Trade, institutions, and ethnic tolerance: Evidence from South Asia. American Political Science Review, 107, 806-832.
28.
KayaY.KarakoçE. (2012). Civilizing vs destructive globalization? A multi-level analysis of anti-immigrant prejudice. International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 53, 23-44.
29.
LeippeM. R.EisenstadtD. (1994). Generalization of dissonance reduction: Decreasing prejudice through induced compliance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 395-413.
30.
MaozI. (2000). Multiple conflicts and competing agendas: A framework for conceptualizing structured encounters between groups in conflict—The case of a coexistence project of Jews and Palestinians in Israel. Journal of Peace Psychology, 6, 135-156.
31.
MeeusenC.KernA. (2016). The relation between societal factors and different forms of prejudice: A cross-national approach on target-specific and generalized prejudice. Social Science Research, 55, 1-15.
32.
NiedenthalP. M.RychlowskaM.WoodA.ZhaoF. (2018). Heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts smiling, laughter and positive emotion across the globe and within the United States. PLoS ONE, 13, e0197651.
33.
OliverJ. E.WongJ. (2003). Intergroup prejudice in multiethnic settings. American Journal of Political Science, 47, 567-582.
34.
PaoliniS.HarrisN. C.GriffinA. S. (2016). Learning anxiety in interactions with the outgroup: Towards a learning model of anxiety and stress in intergroup contact. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 19, 275-313.
35.
PeffleyM.RohrschneiderR. (2003). Democratization and political tolerance in seventeen countries: A multi-level model of democratic learning. Political Research Quarterly, 56, 243-257.
36.
PehrsonS.VignolesV. L.BrownR. (2009). National identification and anti-immigrant prejudice: Individual and contextual effects of national definitions. Social Psychology Quarterly, 72, 24-38.
37.
PettigrewT. F. (1998). Intergroup contact theory. Annual Review of Psychology, 49, 65-85.
38.
PettigrewT. F.TroppL. R. (2008). How does intergroup contact reduce prejudice? Meta-analytic tests of three mediators. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 922-934.
39.
PettigrewT. F.WagnerU.ChristO. (2010). Population ratios and prejudice: Modelling both contact and threat effects. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 36, 635-650.
40.
PutnamR. D. (2007). E pluribus unum: Diversity and community in the twenty-first century the 2006 Johan Skytte Prize lecture. Scandinavian Political Studies, 30, 137-174.
41.
PuttermanL.WeilD. N. (2010). Post-1500 population flows and the long-run determinants of economic growth and inequality. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 125, 1627-1682.
42.
QuillianL. (1995). Prejudice as a response to perceived group threat: Population composition and anti-immigrant and racial prejudice in Europe. American Sociological Review, 60, 586-611.
43.
RiekB. M.ManiaE. W.GaertnerS. L. (2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 336-353.
44.
RychlowskaM.MiyamotoY.MatsumotoD.HessU.Gilboa-SchechtmanE.KambleS.. . . NiedenthalP. M. (2015). Heterogeneity of long-history migration explains cultural differences in reports of emotional expressivity and the functions of smiles. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112, E2429-E2436.
45.
ScheepersP.FellingA.PetersJ. (1990). Social conditions, authoritarianism and ethnocentrism: A theoretical model of the early Frankfurt school updated and tested. European Sociological Review, 6, 15-29.
46.
ScheepersP.GijsbertsM.CoendersM. (2002). Ethnic exclusionism in European countries: Public opposition to civil rights for legal migrants as a response to perceived ethnic threat. European Sociological Review, 18, 17-34.
47.
SchlueterE.ScheepersP. (2010). The relationship between outgroup size and anti-outgroup attitudes: A theoretical synthesis and empirical test of group threat-and intergroup contact theory. Social Science Research, 39, 285-295.
48.
SchugJ.MatsumotoD.HoritaY.YamagishiT.BonnetK. (2010). Emotional expressivity as a signal of cooperation. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31, 87-94.
49.
SherifM.HarveyO. J.WhiteJ.HoodW.SherifC. W., (1961). Intergroup conflict and cooperation: The robbers cave experiment. Norman, OK: University Book Exchange.
50.
ShinH.DovidioJ. F.NapierJ. L. (2013). Cultural differences in targets of stigmatization between individual-and group-oriented cultures. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 35, 98-108.
51.
ShriraI.WismanA.NoguchiK. (2018). Diversity of historical ancestry and personality traits across 56 cultures. Personality and Individual Differences, 128, 44-48.
52.
SteinR. M.PostS. S.RindenA. L. (2000). Reconciling context and contact effects on racial attitudes. Political Research Quarterly, 53, 285-303.
53.
StephanC. W.StephanW. G. (1992). Reducing intercultural anxiety through intercultural contact. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 16, 89-106.
54.
StephanW. G.RenfroC. L.EssesV. M.StephanC. W.MartinT. (2005). The effects of feeling threatened on attitudes toward immigrants. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 29, 1-19.
55.
StephanW. G.StephanC. W. (1984). The role of ignorance in intergroup relations. In MillerN.BrewerM. B. (Eds.), Groups in contact: The psychology of desegregation (pp. 229-257). Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
56.
TajfelH.TurnerJ. C., (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In WorchelS.AustinW. G. (Eds.), The psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago, IL: Nelson Hall.
57.
TauschN.HewstoneM.KenworthyJ. B.PsaltisC.SchmidK.PopanJ. R.. . . HughesJ. (2010). Secondary transfer effects of intergroup contact: Alternative accounts and underlying processes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 282-302.
58.
TeorellJ.DahlbergS.HolmbergS.RothsteinB.KhomenkoA.SvenssonR. (2017). The quality of government standard dataset. Gothenburg, Sweden: The Quality of Government Institute, University of Gothenburg.
59.
United Nations Population Division. (2002). International migration report. New York, NY: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations.
60.
Van de VliertE. (2013). Climato-economic habitats support patterns of human needs, stresses, and freedoms. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 35, 465-480.
61.
Van LaarC.LevinS.SinclairS.SidaniusJ. (2005). The effect of university roommate contact on ethnic attitudes and behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41, 329-345.
62.
VoigtländerN.VothH. J. (2012). Persecution perpetuated: The medieval origins of anti-Semitic violence in Nazi Germany. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127, 1339-1392.
63.
WoodA.RychlowskaM.NiedenthalP. M. (2016). Heterogeneity of long-history migration predicts emotion recognition accuracy. Emotion, 16, 413-420.
64.
ZajoncR. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 1-27.
65.
ZimmermannJ.NeyerF. J. (2013). Do we become a different person when hitting the road? Personality development of sojourners. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 105, 515-530.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
