Scientific Method Explaining Why Some Western Citizens Fear Eastern Refugees

After the attacks in Paris were claimed by the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Muslims in Western countries have suffered the severe backlash.

For refugees fleeing the wars in the East, their matter is worse. The problem was exacerbated further when a Muslim married couple carried out a mass shooting in San Bernardino, California; an incident which left 14 people dead, and 22 injured on December 2.

After this incident, the leading presidential candidate for the Republican Party, Donald Trump said all Muslims should be barred from entering the US. As some people opposed Trump’s idea, others supported his proposal. For example, it was reported that New Jersey Governor, Chris Christie said he would not want even a 5-year-old orphan refugee to enter his state.

And it is not only Governor Christie who supports this bold proposal, many influential politicians in the US and Europe share this view. Their argument is simple. Terrorists could infiltrate refugees and carry out more attacks.

But whereas all the attackers who carried out the killings in both France and US were not refugees, concerned observers have said barring refugees from entering the West is never a good idea. What observers have strongly warned against, is the divide that will likely occur (a divide of the West and the East) if refugees are rejected. And as Muslims also living in the West continue to suffer from the backlash, the gray zone—which is the zone of peaceful coexistence between humanity in social context—will be destroyed. It then creates the situation of “us” and “them”. According to observers, this plays perfectly into the hands of the terrorists.

However, as the above discussions and suggestions unfold, there is something we all seem to have been missing. Certainly, Trump and his anti-refugee people have suffered some backlash from pro-refugee proponents. But both the pro and the anti people seem to act on emotions.

For today, we are looking at why the anti people are rejecting refugees purely from a scientific perspective.

According to the Vox.Com, the anti-refugee reaction looks more comprehensible in the context of years of psychological work on conflict and emotion. In addition, it reports that terrorist attacks set off one of our most fundamental gut reactions, and that when we are threatened, we draw clear lines between “us” and “them.”

“When attacks happen, there is a perceived high cost in mistaking in-group, out-group members for one another. So when you see an attack like the one in Beirut or the one in Paris, it highlights those boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them.’ It means those boundaries become more closely circumscribed; they become tinier,” Mina Cikara, a neuroscientist at the Harvard’s Intergroup Laboratory, explained.

Psychologists have also found that threats from these out-groups often appear much bigger and more imminent than they really are. Two researchers, Jay Van Bavel and Jenny Xiao, at New York University illustrated this concept in a paper they published in 2012.

The researchers asked participants to estimate the straight-line distance from New York to Mexico City. Participants who expressed more animosity toward Mexican immigrants rated Mexico City as being several hundred miles closer to New York than people who felt less threatened. Van Bavel said: “We have new data showing that if people think the wall between the countries is secure, this effect goes away.”

According to psychologists, ‘uncertainty’ is another factor that contributes to anti-refugee sentiments. Psychologists have further explained that, in the wake of any attack, our suspicion of outsiders heightens. In 2014, Ingrid Haas, a political psychologist at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, published a series of experiments showing that when her team manipulated participants’ fear as well as their feelings of uncertainty, the participants became more intolerant of others.

In other experiments, it was revealed that uncertainty strengthens feelings of group identity. The outside group is always perceived as the enemy.

And Haas believes ‘uncertainty’ is the primary factor that is currently contributing to the anti-refugee stance among some people in the West. She was quoted as saying, “Really the uncertainty is making things worse. In chaotic news events, misinformation is bound to proliferate, and threatening narratives like terrorists are sneaking in with refugees are common.”

Therefore, the negative reaction to refugees is more emotional than rational. And, psychologists say, it is unlikely to be countered by statistics or logical counterarguments. As a result, the ability to control people’s emotions is the only thing that can help the situation.

Maybe this will help us to understand why Trump and his people are behaving the way they are towards refugees. But do you agree with this scientific explanation? Share your opinion with us.

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