Doctoral Dissertation Research: Anxiety and Ethnocentrism: Coalitional Psychology in Two Populations

0242186 Fessler/Navaltte这篇由人类学研究生撰写的论文提出了这样一个问题：“文化如何与产生民族中心主义的内在心理机制相互作用？为什么在危险的时候，对群体意识形态的坚持会增加？该项目旨在解释为什么人们坚持并顽强地捍卫自己的世界观。它测试的命题，包括在合作企业的可预测性，可预测性是一个功能的共同性的文化价值观，因此，显示的民族中心主义相当于广告，旨在招募联盟的支持，在需要的时候，从组内成员。研究将在两个地区进行，城市南加州和农村哥斯达黎加。 这些文化沿着个人主义/集体主义的维度不同，这是一个预测影响不同形式威胁的突出性的因素。 调查将结合联合收割机定性人种学方法与控制心理学实验，以探索文化，意识形态和个性的个体差异如何影响人们如何评价内群体和外群体在威胁或社会冲突的时候。更广泛的影响：9/11恐怖袭击以及过去十年的许多种族灭绝战争都围绕着世界观的差异，表现为暴力的种族中心主义。通过阐明产生种族中心主义的心理机制和加剧种族中心主义的文化因素，本项目可能为外交官、政策制定者和国防分析师提供一个更坚实的基础，以做出决策，努力避免、改善或结束源于文化差异的暴力冲突。

0242186Fessler / NavarreteThis dissertation research by an anthropology graduate student asks: 'How does culture interact with the innate psychological mechanisms that produce ethnocentrism?', and 'Why does adherence to in-group ideology increase in times of danger?' The project seeks to explain why people adhere to and tenaciously defend their worldviews. It tests the proposition that inclusion in cooperative ventures is premised on predictability, and predictability is a function of commonality in cultural values, therefore displays of ethnocentrism are tantamount to advertisements intended to recruit coalitional support from in-group members in times of need. Research will be conducted in two regions, urban Southern California and rural Costa Rica. These cultures differ along the dimension of individualism/collectivism, a factor predicted to influence the salience of different forms of threat. Investigations will combine qualitative ethnographic approaches with controlled psychological experiments to explore how culture, ideology, and individual differences in personality affect how people evaluate in-groups and out-groups in times of threat or social conflict. Broader impacts: The terrorist attacks of 9/11 as well as many of the genocidal wars of the last decade revolve around differences in worldviews, which manifest as violent ethnocentrism. By elucidating the psychological mechanisms that generate ethnocentrism and the cultural factors that exacerbate it, this project may provide diplomats, policy makers, and defense analysts with a firmer foundation on which to make decisions in the effort to avoid, ameliorate, or end violent conflicts that stem from cultural differences.