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Abstract

Starting with an epistemological discussion of the distinction between a scientific finding and its moral/ethical evaluation, we try to present briefly the basic standpoints of human ethology and evolutionary psychology on the topic of distrust of strangers. We then discuss whether such distruct could be a biopsychic universal which, under certain historical, ecological, political and socioeconomic conditions, could turn into xenophobia and ethnocentricity with all their malevolent destructiveness. This underscores the importance of a broad interdisciplinary approach to the study of the roots of xenophobia, since only a comprehensive programme of enquiry producing knowledge on the biopsychic, social and economic foundations of this phenomenon will make it possible to propose appropriate countermeasures.

Keywords

Distrust of strangers Ethnocentricity Interdisciplinarity Xenophobia

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Distrust of strangers: a theoretical background for a multidisciplinary research programme

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