Feeling threatened about the future: Whites' emotional reactions to anticipated ethnic demographic changes

HR Outten, MT Schmitt, DA Miller… - Personality and Social …, 2012 - journals.sagepub.com
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 2012journals.sagepub.com
In many Western countries, the proportion of the population that is White will drop below
50% within the next century. Two experiments examined how anticipation of these future
ethnic demographics affects current intergroup processes. In Study 1, White Americans who
viewed actual demographic projections for a time when Whites are no longer a numerical
majority felt more angry toward and fearful of ethnic minorities than Whites who did not view
future projections. Whites who viewed the future projections also felt more sympathy for their …
In many Western countries, the proportion of the population that is White will drop below 50% within the next century. Two experiments examined how anticipation of these future ethnic demographics affects current intergroup processes. In Study 1, White Americans who viewed actual demographic projections for a time when Whites are no longer a numerical majority felt more angry toward and fearful of ethnic minorities than Whites who did not view future projections. Whites who viewed the future projections also felt more sympathy for their ingroup than Whites in the control condition. In Study 2, the authors replicated the effects for intergroup emotions with a sample of White Canadians. White Canadians who thought about a future in which Whites were a numerical minority appraised the ingroup as more threatened, which mediated the effect of condition on intergroup emotions. The authors discuss the implications of these findings for race relations in increasingly diverse societies.
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