Epistemological Fortress and Emotional Barriers: Right-wing Authoritarian, Social Dominance Views, Color-blind Racism, Racial Attitudes and Israeli-Jewish Emotional Reactions to Racism towards Palestine-Arab

One of the tasks of social-work is cultivating dialogue between groups, as a way to promote peace. Although scholars emphasize the importance of emotions towards the suffering of the minorities for promoting these goals, there is a shortage of knowledge on the mechanisms that may contribute to the development of these feelings among majority members.

We combined two models with the assumption that the relationship between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), social dominance orientation (SDO) and the emotional reactions will be mediated by color blind racial attitudes (CoBRAS) and prejudice.

Using a convenience sample of 533 Jewish students at Israeli universities, we developed new model of the determinants of empathy, guilt, and fear among majorities toward racism.

Results showed that the level of pre-existing RWA and SDO shape the emotional response through two different mediation paths. RWA and SDO, along with racial attitudes, and the perception of the Palestine-Arabs as a group, permit the Israeli-Jews to preserve their moral self-perception, while simultaneously increasing their fear of Palestine-Arabs.

Theoretical as well as practical implications are discussed, such as the destructive influence of the majority’s superficial knowledge about the everyday life of the minorities.