Prejudice and Stereotypes: an analysis of the factors responsible for hostility towards ethnic minorities in the Netherlands

Abstract

In their study of prejudice and intolerance in Italy, Sniderman and colleagues found that for Italians generalised mistrust and the feeling of economic insecurity are essential determinants in negative attitudes toward immigrants and that categorization is the mediator in the model. The same model tested in Italy, namely the “Two Flavours” model, has been applied in the Dutch context to explore the factors that can best predict the prejudice of Dutch people toward ethnic minorities in the Netherlands. Expressive and psychological factors as well as instrumental, rational factors are employed to predict prejudice. Categorization is hypothesised to be the most proximate factor accounting for prejudice. The results demonstrate the importance of categorization and mistrust in the formation of prejudicial attitudes, but suggest no mediator effect for mistrust, economic insecurity and categorization.