We are pleased to announce that on October 19, 2023, the Center for Positive/Empirical Analysis of Political Economy will be inviting Dr. Jonathan A. Chu (National University of Singapore) to hold a special seminar titled “Collective Punishment of the Other: Groupness and Public Backlash against Foreign Nationals during International Competition”.
- Date & Time: October 19, Thursday, 13:10-14:40 JST
- Venue: Bldg. No. 3, 7F Room 704, Waseda Campus, Waseda University
- Title: “Collective Punishment of the Other: Groupness and Public Backlash against Foreign Nationals during International Competition”
- Open to Undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff of Waseda University, and the general public; free admission
- No registration is required.
- Language: English
Title: “Collective Punishment of the Other: Groupness and Public Backlash against Foreign Nationals during International Competition”
Abstract:
Under international rivalry, people often call for broadly punitive policies against the foreign rival’s citizens, or what we term “collective punishment.” For example, some American lawmakers and people have demanded a broad range of immigration, economic, and investigative policies that would target all Chinese nationals. Such calls for collective punishment against foreigners can be especially pernicious for cosmopolitan countries, like the United States, that host citizens from all around the world. In this context, our project investigates why some people support policies that indiscriminately impact an entire group. Building upon the basic ingroup-outgroup distinction laid out in social identity theory, we conceptualize people’s perception of a social outgroup as containing two properties of “groupness”—entitativity/cohesion and essence/quality. We then argue that stronger perceptions of groupness cause greater willingness to indiscriminately punish an outgroup. We test this theory using a novel survey design that can measure the effect of groupness perceptions both with observational and experimental data. We find initial evidence in the context of American public opinion on Chinese and Russian nationals. We are exploring these patterns in the Australian context as well. The results will uncover new insight into how international competition bleeds into domestic politics.
【Contact】 Professor Atsushi Tago of the School of Political Science and Economics at [email protected]
Sponsored by the Center for Positive/Empirical Analysis of Political Economy
