A culture of security: Implications of the salience of security on intergroup relations

Though there is some evidence that many values have implications for intergroup relations (Rokeach, 1973), research has tended to focus on the impact of valuing equality and individualism. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the impact of making the value of national security salient. In study 1, the relationship between individual differences in the extent to which national security is salient and prejudice towards African Americans and other social groups was examined. The impact of manipulating national security salience on the discrete emotions associated with various racial/ethnic groups was investigated in studies 2 and 3. Whether other threats operate like national security was investigated in study 4.; Results indicated that prejudice towards African Americans is significantly predicted by individual differences in the extent to which national security is chronically salient, when holding other relevant demographic variables constant. Furthermore, when the salience of national security is experimentally manipulated, individuals in the national security condition report more negative affective reactions to African Americans and Arabic Americans relative to European Americans. Finally, other national threats, such as threat to national economy, appear to operate similarly. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of mechanism and the impact of political messages.