Psychological Mechanisms of Xenophobia

In our day and age, as always, man persists in drawing visible and invisible boundaries, thus separating himself from other worlds and people and coping with fears they generate. In a concentrated form these fears are expressed by the word "foe" that continues to scare mankind from time immemorial. The meaning, with which this word is invested, is not always the same. If, along with suspicion, Foe is causing an ambivalent feeling of interest and curiosity, he is more likely Other than Foe. He simultaneously attracts and repels us. In itself, this emotional ambivalence is not negative, and Foe-Other always has a chance to become Friend. But more often it is fear that prevails in attitudes to Foe. After all, people have always been wary of things incomprehensible, unknown or unfamiliar. Erich Fro mm wrote in his well-known book The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness that things other than your own, while being of certain interest, simultaneously cause fear, suspicion and negation, for they call for non-ordinary solutions. In this case, Foe acquires a negative coloration because, being placed in our system of coordinates, it fails to respond to the tested methods of perception, interpretation and behavior.1 Then Foe is filled with specific concreteness, differing in habits, values and views, and thus becomes Foreigner, not Other, which means someone remote and having nothing in common with anyone or anything, a foreign body. This is why Foes-Foreigners are usually avoided; they are seen as causing problems and disasters, often regarded as enemies, and hated. And if the rational human feeling of fear in the presence of something unknown takes this turn, it is nothing else than xenophobia, a kind of fear provoked by foreigners, a dislike of and hostility to Foreigners, separate individuals and whole groups that are different from us. The present-day scientific literature is paying surprisingly little attention to problems of xenophobia. In Russia, journalists are authors of the overwhelming majority of articles on this theme. Meanwhile, it is this problem (though it is not directly defined as the xenophobia problem) that is of key importance in studying biased reactions, prejudices, negative attitudes and stereotypes in relation of different ethnic, religious and social groups. The same goes for discussing matters of war and peace, shaping the enemy image, and so on. Based on those stud- . G. Soldatova, D. Sc. (Psychology), Professor, Deputy Chief, Department of Psychology, Moscow State University. In Russian this article was first published in Psikhologichesky zhurnal, vol. 27, No. 6, 2006. стр. 105 . ies, we in this article intend to address the following task: to make a psychological analysis of the phenomenon of xenophobia, its functions, and sociopsychological regularities shaping xenophobic attitudes and xenophobic thinking. The Phenomenon of Xenophobia . Webster's defines xenophobia as fear or hatred of strangers, foreigners or of anything that is strange or foreign. The literary meaning of the word implies that the xenophobes are people who dislike all foreigners and their "otherness. " These definitions show that strangers and foreigners (xenos, which means outsiders, foreigners) have always been the main target of xenophobia. The reasons are simple: historically, the coming of strangers was usually an ill omen. At worst, they laid claim to fields and pastures, to property and wives. At best, they took root in society, bringing changes. Whatever the case, strangers were a real threat to the existing way of life. In modern society xenophobia embraces a broad range of targets. Accordingly, the following types of xenophobia are identified: . * racial and ethnic phobias (ethnophobias) determining prejudice to and discrimination against persons belonging to a different race or ethnic group (for example, White and Black racism, anti-Semitism, Sinophobia, etc.); . * religious phobias determining fear of and prejudice to adherents of certain religious orientations (e.g., Islamophobia, phobias in relation of members of different religious cults, etc.); . * phobias in relation of groups differing from the majority in certain characteristics-cultural, physical, age, and others. The latter group includes a broad range of social phobias, many of which have long been observed by scientists and given special, familiar names. Some cases in point are migrantophobia-prejudice and discrimination against refugees, displaced persons, and refuge-seekers; handicapism - a phobia and prejudice against individuals with physical limitations (defects, injuries, etc.); ageism-prejudices and discrimination caused by a person's age; sexism-prejudice and discrimination on the basis of sex, and many others. The number of these prejudices grows considerably against the background of social crises where xenophobia builds up to a mass scale.