Antecedents and consequences of autonomy‐ and dependency‐oriented help toward refugees

Abstract

We tested antecedents (paternalistic beliefs; Study 1) and consequences (social change potential; Study 2) of autonomy‐ and dependency‐oriented help and developed scales assessing paternalistic beliefs and both forms of help. In Study 1 (N = 143 Germans), we focused on paternalistic beliefs as an antagonist to social change and a key distinguishing variable between engagement in both forms of help. As expected, paternalistic beliefs were positively related to dependency‐oriented help, mediated by concern for a positive national moral image, but negatively related to autonomy‐oriented help, mediated by perceived competence of refugees. In Study 2, both refugees (N = 80) and Germans (N = 94) perceived autonomy‐oriented help to have more potential for social change than dependency‐oriented help.

Beyond Allyship: Motivations for Advantaged Group Members to Engage in Action for Disadvantaged Groups

“…If action is the result of moral outrage about the unjust inequality faced by the disadvantaged group, then autonomyoriented help should be the most preferred action. This prediction is consistent with recent research showing that both advantaged (e.g., Germans) and disadvantaged group members (e.g., refugees) believe that autonomy-oriented help has greater potential to produce genuine improvements to the status of the disadvantaged group (e.g., refugees in Germany) than does dependency-oriented help (Becker et al, 2018). However, if the advantaged group member is responding to moral outrage that results from observing the harmful mistreatment of disadvantaged group members by other powerful agents, the form of helping may be less important than ensuring that the offenders are punished.…”

“…Advantaged group members can also act for the disadvantaged group because they want their group to be seen in a positive (Teixeira et al, 2019) and moral light (Becker et al, 2018), to communicate warmth when presented with negative stereotypes about their group (Hopkins et al, 2007;Van Leeuwen & Täuber, 2012), and to boost the reputation of their group by displaying their knowledge (Van Leeuwen & Täuber, 2010). We argue that these reasons for helping the outgroup are driven by the need to maintain, protect, and bolster the status of the ingroup (i.e., the ingroup-focused motivation) and that these needs will be felt most acutely by high identifiers.…”

“…Action for the disadvantaged group can be one way that advantaged group members can display these paternalistic beliefs. Support for this argument comes from research which found that paternalistic beliefs predict German's willingness to provide dependency-oriented help to refugees (Becker et al, 2018). Dependency-oriented help maintains the lower status of the disadvantaged group by making them dependent on the help provided by the advantaged group.…”

Understanding allies’ participation in social change: A multiple perspectives approach

“…The topic of allyship has received scholarly attention from researchers working on a variety of different phenomena ranging from collective action (e.g., Becker et al, 2018;Iyer & Leach, 2008;Iyer et al, 2003Iyer et al, , 2004Radke et al, 2018;Saab et al, 2015;Subašić et al, 2008;Van Zomeren et al, 2011), intergroup emotions (Iyer & Leach, 2008;Lantos et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2009), prejudice confrontation (e.g., Czopp & Monteith, 2003;Czopp et al, 2006;Drury & Kaiser, 2014), intergroup contact (e.g., Becker et al, 2013;Hässler et al, 2020;Pettigrew & Tropp, 2006;Reimer et al, 2017;Saguy et al, 2011), intraminority solidarity (e.g., Cortland et al, 2017;Craig & Richeson, 2012, intergroup helping (e.g., Nadler, & Halabi, 2006;Van Leeuwen, & Täuber, 2010), and volunteerism (e.g., Kende et al, 2017;Thomas & McGarty, 2018). This work has made significant contributions to our understanding of why and how members of different groups come together to act against inequality.…”

Special Issue on “The Social Psychology of Forced Migration and Refugee Integration” in the European Journal of Social Psychology

“…In contrast, a differentiated view of refugees’ migration experience and their responses to migration is relatively scarce in public discourse, which is one upshot of the drastic power imbalance between refugees, on the one hand, and representatives and members of the receiving societies, on the other hand. Being subsumed under one general category, refugees tend to be represented as desperate victims and passive recipients of help (see Becker, Ksenofontov, Siem, & Love, ), who are left with little more than their bare lives and easily lend themselves to infra‐ or dehumanization (Esses, Veenvliet, Hodson, & Mihic, ). To be sure, refugees are deprived of basic resources and experience threats to fundamental needs.…”