The effect of perceived threat on human rights: A meta-analysis

Abstract

Individuals express support for civil liberties and human rights, but when threatened tend to restrict rights for both others and themselves. However, the question of whether or not rights are restricted to punish others or protect ourselves remains unclear. This meta-analysis integrates the findings of the effect of perceived threats on support for restrictions of civil liberties from 1997 to 2019. It includes 163 effect-size estimates from 46 different articles involving 91,716 participants. The presence of threat increased support for restrictions against outgroup members significantly more than ingroup members, providing a possible punitive explanation for support for restrictions of civil liberties. These findings contribute to the debate on rights and their relationship with deservingness, suggesting that we delineate those who deserve human rights and those who do not.

The psychological effects of perceived threat, national identity and self-esteem on the well-being of Qatari youth during the blockade

“…However, the statistically signi cant predictive effect of perceived threat within the overall regression model (B = − .058, p = 0.013) provides insight into the functionality of the blockade on the individual psychology of Qatari youth. Although much of the political psychology and intergroup con ict literature has focused on group-level measures (Carriere et al, 2020), this paper suggests that perceived threat in Qatari youth impacts wellbeing. In contrast to prior literature suggesting that social or national identi cation increases due to perceived threat (Haslam et al, 2005), this model provides no evidence that this was directly the case within the Qatari blockade.…”

“…Research on (perceived) intergroup con ict have typically focused on effects relating to stressors that may exacerbate con ict, physicality, territory, power; in addition to restrictions for civil liberties and human rights (Carriere et al, 2020). There is a distinct lack of research on the potential role of perceived threat for wellbeing and identity in young adults where such individuals do not have prior experience of con icts, as is the case in the Qatari blockade.…”

Outgroup aggressors or ingroup deviants? Perceived group boundaries and threats underlying far-right opposition to LGBTQ rights in Serbia.

“…The first theme suggests that resentment against the West for previous interventions in Serbia may influence support for LGBTQ rights in the present. Although research indicates that threat can more substantially affect rights restrictions in violent conflict-affected contexts (Carriere et al, 2020), there is little research on how past violence between two groups can affect support for the rights of an unrelated minority group, such as LGBTQ people, in the present. This represents a potentially important research direction.…”

“…Threat perception is a predictor of support for human rights. When people perceive threats to their ingroups, they are more likely to support rights restrictions (Carriere et al, 2020). Threat perception can lead to the restriction of rights for minorities, in particular, including for gay men and lesbians (Feldman & Stenner, 1997).…”

Balancing the Freedom–Security Trade-Off During Crises and Disasters

“…Terrorism is one extreme context in which the public often perceives high levels of threat, but many other threats can motivate people to give up some of their freedom (for a relevant recent meta-analysis, see Carriere et al, 2020). For example, communicating the dangers of hurricanes or wildfires increases people's willingness to evacuate (Demuth et al, 2016;McLennan et al, 2019), and conveying the dangers of climate change increases support for freedom-restricting climate policies (Feldman & Hart, 2018).…”