Bzezyan, A.A. Specific features of ethnical identity as a predictor of accepting discriminatory attitude towards ethnic-cultural groups.

Abstract: The article concerns specific features of ethnical identity as a factor for accepting discriminatory attitude toward ethnic-cultural groups with differing appearance. It is supposed that specific features of ethnical identity may serve as prerequisites for the manifestation of various components of discriminatory attitude towards other ethnical groups. The author provides results of the comparative analysis of manifestation of hypo- and hyper-identity, ethniccentrism of Russians and Armenians, the degree of acceptance of discriminatory attitudes towards ethnic-cultural groups by Russians and Armenians, as well as the results of interrelation between accepting a discriminatory attitude towards ethnical characteristics of participants of the study. The method “accepting discriminatory attitude towards representatives of ethnic-cultural groups with differing type of appearance” (V.A. Labunskaya, A.A. Bzezyan, 2013) was applied in order to define the degree of acceptance of discriminatory attitude expressed in actions towards representatives of various ethnic-cultural groups with different types of appearance “Slavic appearance”, “Caucasian appearance”, “Asian appearance”. The method of “Types of ethnical identity” (G.U. Soldatova, S.V. Ryzhova, 1994) was applied in order to study the manifestations of various types of ethnical identity (including characteristics: positive/ negative, defined/undefined, value), expressions of hyper-identity, which in the opinion of the authors of the method causes greater destructive character of the relations among different ethnic groups and discrimination. The method of “Evaluation of the level of ethno-centrism”, as developed by J.W. Neuliep and J.C. MacCroskey (J.W. Neuliep, J.C. MacCroskey. 1997) and adapted by O.I. Matiash and others (Matiash, O.I., 2011) was applied in order to study expressions of ethnic centrism and specific features of respondents’ attitude towards their own and other cultures. In order to establish the differences between the Russians and the Armenians in the expressions of ethno-centrism, manifestations of ethnical identity and acceptance of discriminatory attitude toward ethnic-cultural groups with differing appearance the author used the Student’s t-test and Mann-Whitney U-test. In order to establish the relation between the ethnical identity, expressed ethno-centrism and discriminatory attitude toward ethnic-cultural groups with differing appearance the author used correlation analysis by Spearman. Unlike the existing social psychology works, this study concerns discriminatory attitude towards ethnic cultural groups marked by types of appearance provided for in the anthropological literature and often used by the mass media and in the everyday behavior. It is shown that accepting discriminatory attitude towards ethnic and cultural groups is correlated to the manifestation of ethno-centrism, types of ethnic identity, and it differs as a result of influence of ethnical characteristics of the discrimination subjects; manifestation of behavior component of discriminatory attitude towards other ethno-cultural group is due to the specific features of ethnical identity of Russians and Armenians.

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