Feeling threatened by Middle Eastern immigrants: The role of RWA, SDO, subjective societal status, and religiosity in Germany

In the context of growing international migration, it is crucial to understand factors that might alleviate or amplify threat perceptions by outgroups. Hereby, the role of subjective societal status (SSS), religiosity, Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) are not fully understood. In a large online survey ( N = 1257), we investigated the joint and interactive effects of RWA, SDO, SSS, and religiosity on German residents’ threat perceptions by Middle Eastern immigrants. Higher RWA and SDO, and lower SSS, predicted both symbolic and realistic threat, even after controlling for income, education, age, and gender. Furthermore, higher SSS buffered the effect of RWA and SDO for realistic threat, while religiosity was not related to threat perceptions and did not moderate RWA or SDO threat associations. We discuss methodological limitations and implications of our findings for the understanding of societal conflict.