The Cognitive-Ecological Challenge of Diversity

In light of the proceeding globalization, societies becoIn light of the proceeding globalization, societies become more and more diverse regarding peoples ethnic and religious backgrounds, their habits, ideals, and beliefs.

While this increasing diversity offers great opportunities for Europe and the world, it also comes with great challenges.

The human tendency to derogate out-groups and minority groups poses a particular threat to peace and cooperation in diversifying societies.

Most available psychological explanations for the formation of negative attitudes and stereotypes towards others rely on peoples self-serving motivations, and therefore suffer from circularity. This leaves our understanding of some of societies greatest challenges largely incomplete.

Based on the research that I have conducted over the past years, I propose a theoretical framework that provides novel explanations for the formation of negative attitudes and stereotypes about out-groups and minorities.

Accordingly, these phenomena arise as natural by-products of innocent cognitive processes and the structure of the external information ecology.

This cognitive-ecological framework argues that people associate out-groups and minority groups with their distinct attributes which differentiate them from in-groups and majorities.

In the external information ecology, however, distinct attributes have a high probability of being negative, and therefore out-groups and minorities suffer a general evaluative disadvantage. In addition, the framework can explain why most existing stereotypes are negative.

In the domain of news reporting, it can explain why news recipients form the erroneous impression that minorities are particularly dangerous, and why politicians and journalists attempt to counteract often backfire.

The ERC Starting Grant would enable me to empirically test my framework, and if successful, it will renew our understanding of some of the most pressing societal challenges of our time.