Intergroup Helping in Response to Separatism

Despite its prevalence and widespread media coverage, separatism as a phenomenon is barely covered in psychological investigations, and the majority’s response to separatism has been completely ignored. We present two studies in which we investigated the notion that separatist movements threaten the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Personality & social psychology bulletin 2013-12, Vol.39 (12), p.1647-1655
Main Authors: van Leeuwen, Esther, Mashuri, Ali
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Coverage
Dissent and Disputes
Economic Policy
Female
Helping Behavior
Humans
Independence
Indonesia
Induced
Interpersonal Relations
Majority Groups
Male
Media coverage
National Identity
News Coverage
Politics
Prevalence
Separatism
Students
Threat
Threats
Young Adult
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Summary:Despite its prevalence and widespread media coverage, separatism as a phenomenon is barely covered in psychological investigations, and the majority’s response to separatism has been completely ignored. We present two studies in which we investigated the notion that separatist movements threaten the continuation of the national identity, as well as the nation’s economic position. Moreover, we hypothesized and found that members of the majority group respond to continuation threat by supporting government measures to help the separatist group. Javanese students who were induced to believe that existing separatist movements in West Papua (Study 1, N = 322) or Aceh (Study 2, N = 180) were currently increasing their efforts to gain independence were more willing to support these groups than participants who believed these movements were dormant. Moreover, this effect was mediated by continuation threat but not economic threat. These results demonstrate the possibility of a peaceful response to separatism threat.
ISSN:0146-1672
1552-7433
DOI:10.1177/0146167213499613