Kuznetsov I.M. The Variability of the Balance of Interethnic Attitudes: the Perception of Inter-Ethnic Situations and the Conditions of Formation

Текст статьи.

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the results of the study of a balance of interethnic attitudes: i.e. the balance between the attitudes of in-group favoritism (a positive attitude towards one’s own ethnic group) and outgroup negativism (a negative attitude towards alien ethnic groups). The fi rst part of the article shows that the domination of the intensity of outgroup negativism over in-group favoritism in the overall balance creates a tendency to perceive any problematic contact of people of diff erent ethnicity as a problematic inter-ethnic situation. This in turn leads to an assessment of even a normal inter-ethnic situation as alarming and creates a tendency to react aggressively to inter-ethnic problems, in particular, to explicitly or latently support of ethnic extremism. The second part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the conditions of the social environment, provoking the growth of outgroup negativism. The research data do not confi rm the widely held opinion about the extraordinary nationalism of young people. The widespread opinion that ethnophobia is less prevalent among the more educated segments of the population is not fully confi rmed. The main conclusion is that the growth of negative outgroup attitudes is primarily triggered by urban environments at various levels, in part because of the growing ethnic diversity that signifi cantly changes the habitual ethno-social structure of the settlements, and partly because the modern urban environment, especially in large cities, provokes a part of the population to perceive their life status as relatively deprived, which we regard as a particular case of marginalization.