4561 - THE EFFECT OF PERCEIVED THREAT OR BENEFIT OF GROUPS WITH AMBIVALENT STEREOTYPES ON BEHAVIORAL TENDENCY TOWARD THEM

Session: D03S020 - Social Inequality 5
AUTHORS:
Sepehrinia Mahya (Tarbiat Modares University ~ Tehran ~ Iran, Islamic Republic of) , Farahani Hojjatollah (Tarbiat Modares University ~ Tehran ~ Iran, Islamic Republic of) , Nejat Pegah (Shahid Beheshti University ~ Tehran ~ Iran, Islamic Republic of)
Abstract text:
According to the Behavior from Intergroup Affect and Stereotypes (BIAS) map, groups stereotypically perceived as cold and competent elicit active harm and passive facilitation, whereas groups perceived as warm and incompetent receive active facilitation and passive harm. Building on this framework, the present study extends prior research by examining the conditions under which facilitative versus harmful behavioral tendencies are directed toward ambivalently stereotyped immigrant groups. Using an experimental vignette methodology (N = 403), we investigated how perceptions of threat versus benefit, as well as their realistic and symbolic types, shape behavioral responses toward these groups. Overall, results indicated that ambivalent immigrant outgroups were treated with more facilitation than harm, regardless of whether they were perceived as threatening or beneficial. Specifically, warm-incompetent groups received higher levels of active facilitation than passive harm, whereas cold-incompetent groups were more targeted with passive facilitation rather than active harm across both threat and benefit conditions. Notably, an unanticipated pattern emerged for cold-incompetent immigrants: participants reported higher levels of active facilitation when these groups were perceived as beneficial rather than threatening, and greater passive harm when they were perceived as threatening rather than beneficial. Furthermore, although symbolic and realistic outcomes are conceptually distinct, both forms of outcomes produced similar behavioral patterns. Finally, replications of the Stereotype Content Model (SCM) were successful for warm-incompetent immigrant groups but not for cold-competent groups, for whom the predicted pattern diverged; specifically, passive harm exceeded active harm, and no significant differences emerged between active and passive facilitation. This study advances our understanding of intergroup behavior by demonstrating how perceptions of threat and benefit across realistic and symbolic domains, shape facilitative and harmful behavioral tendencies toward ambivalently stereotyped immigrant groups.