Threat perceptions perspective and attitudes towards Palestinian refugees in a Lebanese community sample

Abstract

Palestinian refugees have been present in Lebanon since the Nakba of 1948. They constantly struggle against a discriminatory legal system and social exclusion. The literature on negative outgroup attitudes has shown perceived intergroup threats (Stephan and Stephan, 2000) and Social Dominance Orientation (Sidanius and Pratto, 2011) to be strong predictors of prejudice. The present study explored four different types of perceived threats (economic, existential, symbolic, and sectarian imbalance threat) and SDO as predictors of negative attitudes towards Palestinian refugees in a community sample of 402 Lebanese nationals from four different areas of Greater Beirut (Southern Suburb, Tarik Al Jadideh, Achrafieh, and Ras Beirut). Results showed that SDO did not predict attitudes towards Palestinian refugees, while symbolic, economic, and sectarian imbalance threats did. In addition, positive contact, negative contact, and age predicted positive attitudes towards Palestinian refugees. A MANCOVA explored the influence of gender and living location on different types of perceived threats. Results showed that after controlling for demographic and influential variables, gender did not have an effect on the different threats while living location did. Participants from Tarik Al Jadideh and Ras Beirut perceived the four types of threats less than the other areas. Participants in Achrafieh perceived Palestinians as posing sectarian imbalance and existential threats more than those in other areas, while participants from the Southern Suburb perceived symbolic and sectarian imbalance threats more than the other areas. Implications for these findings are discussed. Limitations and future recommendations for further research are also suggested.