Fear, hate, anger, resentment, and envy in youths' racist attitudes toward immigrants

In our earlier studies on Italian youths' attitudes toward multiculturalism, we identified fear, hate, anger, resentment, and envy as significant emotions underlying youths' racism toward immigrants. Here, these emotions are compared and contrasted within the context of cross-cultural relations and, more precisely, of youths' attitudes toward cultural diversity. Surprisingly, our research indicates that envy can sometimes play a significant role in youths' non-acceptance or insufficient acceptance of diversity. Some main constituents of each of these emotions, particularly of envy, anger, and resentment, are considered, especially those constituents that most specifically characterize each emotion and differentiate it from the other ones. The various reciprocal interactions among these emotions and the relationships between them and perception of threat and perception of social cohesion respectively are also considered. What is more, it can be clearly seen that in various ways these emotions and these perceptions are related to knowledge, another element of the theoretical model I am proposing. Here knowledge embraces such conceptualizations as: a) general information about immigration; b) the various types of socio-cultural patterns provided both by school and the family regarding attitudes toward multiculturalism; c) the different experiences of direct contact with specific immigrants. Furthermore, the importance of cultural differences per se in youths' cross-cultural relations is questioned.

Publication type: 
Contributo in volume
Author or Creator: 
Pagani Camilla
Publisher: 
Cambridge Scholars Publishing., Newcastle upon Tyne, GBR
Source: 
Conflict, Violence, Terrorism, and their Prevention, edited by J. M. Ramirez, C. Morrison, & A. Kendall, pp. 16–27. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing., 2014
Date: 
2014
Resource Identifier: 
http://www.cnr.it/prodotto/i/307928
Language: 
Eng
ISTC Author: 
Camilla Pagani's picture
Real name: