Does Individual Health Have Implications for Individuals’ Attitudes towards Minority Groups? A Case Study from the Greek Population
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Does Individual Health Have Implications for Individuals’ Attitudes towards Minority Groups? A Case Study from the Greek Population. / Hall, Jontathan ; Rapp, Carolin; Eikemo, Terje A.
In: Journal of Refugee Studies, Vol. 32, No. Speical Issue 1, 27.12.2019, p. i238-i252.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Does Individual Health Have Implications for Individuals’ Attitudes towards Minority Groups?
T2 - A Case Study from the Greek Population
AU - Hall, Jontathan
AU - Rapp, Carolin
AU - Eikemo, Terje A.
N1 - Special Issue: New Perspectives ont the Europen Refugee Crisis: An Emperical Review
PY - 2019/12/27
Y1 - 2019/12/27
N2 - Immunological defence against pathogens and behavioural responses to members of other ethnic or racial groups may be understood as co-evolved solutions to a commonly recurring adaptive problem in our ancestral environment: the need to avoid infectious disease. In recent years, research on the concept of the behavioural immune system has highlighted behavioural defence, showing in particular that individual-level disgust sensitively is associated with greater prejudice towards members of other—particularly stigmatized—social groups. Stigma thus represents in part a human disease-avoidance strategy. This mechanism is thereby assumed to be particularly strong for individuals who report poor mental and/or physical health. In this article, we draw upon MIGHEAL data to examine how health vulnerabilities impact prejudice towards new immigrants in Greece—a key refugee- and migrant-receiving society. The findings have direct implications for the political consequences of health interventions: policies that result in enhanced immune-system functioning and resilience to health shocks may reduce prejudice towards new migrants, enhancing a society’s capacity to receive and integrate refugees and other migrants. Health policy may thus provide an avenue by which societies improve their responses to large-scale migration flows—a policy area that arguably represents the greatest moral crisis of our time.
AB - Immunological defence against pathogens and behavioural responses to members of other ethnic or racial groups may be understood as co-evolved solutions to a commonly recurring adaptive problem in our ancestral environment: the need to avoid infectious disease. In recent years, research on the concept of the behavioural immune system has highlighted behavioural defence, showing in particular that individual-level disgust sensitively is associated with greater prejudice towards members of other—particularly stigmatized—social groups. Stigma thus represents in part a human disease-avoidance strategy. This mechanism is thereby assumed to be particularly strong for individuals who report poor mental and/or physical health. In this article, we draw upon MIGHEAL data to examine how health vulnerabilities impact prejudice towards new immigrants in Greece—a key refugee- and migrant-receiving society. The findings have direct implications for the political consequences of health interventions: policies that result in enhanced immune-system functioning and resilience to health shocks may reduce prejudice towards new migrants, enhancing a society’s capacity to receive and integrate refugees and other migrants. Health policy may thus provide an avenue by which societies improve their responses to large-scale migration flows—a policy area that arguably represents the greatest moral crisis of our time.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - Behavioural immune system
KW - depression
KW - health
KW - immigration
KW - prejudice
KW - stigma
KW - xenophobia
U2 - 10.1093/jrs/fez043
DO - 10.1093/jrs/fez043
M3 - Journal article
VL - 32
SP - i238-i252
JO - Journal of Refugee Studies
JF - Journal of Refugee Studies
SN - 0951-6328
IS - Speical Issue 1
ER -
ID: 234212989