On shadow boundaries: Intergroup contact, social dominance orientation, intergroup anxiety, and outgroup feelings in the case of Artvin

The aim of this study is to determine whether social dominance orientation and intergroup anxiety have a mediating role in the correlation between social contact level and negative emotions towards the out-group. In this context, data was collected from individuals aged 18-65 from Laz, Hamshen, Georgian, Turkish and other ethnic groups living in Artvin province. The data analysis of the study was conducted with the data of a total of 373 participants, 187 (50.1%) of whom were women and 186 (49.9%) of whom were men. Demographic Information Form, Social Contact Scale, Social Dominance Orientation Scale, Intergroup Anxiety Scale and Negative Emotions Towards Out-group Scale were used in the research. In the study, independent groups t test, Pearson correlation and One way Anova methods were used to examine the distribution according to demographic information. Hayes theorem with Process Macro was used to examine the mediation effect. According to the findings, it was determined that social dominance orientation and intergroup anxiety levels played a mediating role in the relationships between the level of social contact and the levels of positive emotion and negative emotion, which are the two sub-factors of the negative emotion scale towards the out-group. Although there are different studies on the variables subject to research, it is noteworthy that there are few studies on different ethnic groups living in the Black Sea Region. Therefore, conducting research on different groups is important in terms of generalizability and validity of the findings. In this context, the findings obtained from the research were discussed considering the relevant literature.