{"id":58898,"date":"2019-06-18T14:53:32","date_gmt":"2019-06-18T18:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=58898"},"modified":"2019-06-18T15:01:58","modified_gmt":"2019-06-18T19:01:58","slug":"brock-prof-says-compassion-crucial-to-solving-refugee-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2019\/06\/brock-prof-says-compassion-crucial-to-solving-refugee-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock prof says compassion crucial to solving refugee crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"

The greater the number of people who need assistance, the less likely we are to step up and help, says Brock Psychology Professor Gordon Hodson.<\/span><\/p>\n

With 25.4 million refugees worldwide, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the very magnitude of this crisis may discourage people from trying to solve it, Hodson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a paradox, but people seem to be more willing to help when there are fewer people in need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hodson is drawing attention to the issue as<\/span> World Refugee Day<\/span><\/a> approaches on Thursday, June 20. The day, marked by the UNHCR, is meant to bring public awareness to the difficulties faced by millions of refugees across the globe.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the magnitude of any crisis plays a role in the level of assistance offered, Hodson says help is even less likely to arrive if those in need are perceived as less than human.<\/span><\/p>\n

By invoking metaphors that conjure up animals or insects \u2014 words like hoard, swarm, stampede or invasion \u2014 anti-refugee politicians and pundits dehumanize refugees.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we come to think of other groups as less than human, we tend to deny them the rights and protections that humans get,\u201d Hodson says. \u201cIt becomes a psychological justification to deny basic rights to a certain group.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People\u2019s reluctance to help or to welcome refugees into their own societies can come down to individual factors, such as empathy, perspective taking (the ability to see a situation from another\u2019s point of view) and social dominance orientation or SDO (the extent to which a person is comfortable with social hierarchies).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re high in social dominance orientation, you\u2019re going to see things as competitive and some people are just going to be on the bottom and that\u2019s fine; that\u2019s the natural order of things,\u201d says Psychology PhD student Megan Earle (BA \u201915, MA \u201917). \u201cSo, you may be less concerned with wanting to change the conditions for people who are more disadvantaged than you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to Hodson, SDO is one of the top predictors of prejudice toward immigrants and refugees.<\/span><\/p>\n

Situational factors, such as the fear of terrorism or crime, or the perception of economic threat, can also make people reluctant to help others. Those sentiments, especially when based on fear, can be exploited for political gain.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to control the masses, making them concerned about foreign invaders is one of the most tried and tested ways to manipulate people,\u201d Hodson says.<\/span><\/p>\n

He points to the U.S. as one example. By exaggerating the number of people trying to cross the border, President Trump plays on white Americans\u2019 anxiety over losing their position in society, says Hodson.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven if people are generally tolerant, they become less tolerant when you can get them thinking about being taken over by others.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hodson and Earle have studied the effects of media on people\u2019s attitudes. Turns out, it doesn\u2019t take long to shift someone\u2019s thinking.<\/span><\/p>\n

After only nine minutes of exposure to news stories with a negative bias, researchers saw an increase in anti-refugee attitudes. Another longitudinal study showed similar effects over time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEven controlling for pre-existing attitudes, you can see this increase in negative attitudes toward immigrants and refugees after watching more threatening news,\u201d says Earle. \u201cThat can be really important in terms of where people are getting their information and how that can influence attitudes and then policy support.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

People tend to engage with traditional and social media outlets and forums that confirm their own attitudes, says Hodson. \u201cAcross the political divide, we\u2019re watching different news, and then we talk to people who watch the same news as us. It\u2019s causing a polarization spiral.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

All this speaks to the importance of being a critical consumer of information, says Hodson, especially in the era of \u201cfake news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFact-check the information you\u2019re getting. Recognize that there\u2019s always going to be bias in any kind of media. At the very least, look at that information from a few different sources,\u201d Earle says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to look up a story and see how different places are telling it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the irony, isn\u2019t it?\u201d says Hodson. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had so much information at our fingertips and yet we are being led astray, manipulated by foreign governments and groups that are trying to make us afraid of things and distrust each other.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Research from social psychology suggests that \u201chuman brains have evolved to pay attention to negative information,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019re more likely to see it, more likely to remember it and more likely to use it to form your opinions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can all feel it in ourselves as we watch the news and feel that rising anxiety,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to be cynical about human nature and think that we\u2019re all doomed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Human beings are not well-equipped to handle some of the major challenges facing the world in the 21<\/span>st<\/span> century, says Hodson. He expects climate change to intensify the refugee crisis as people flee homelands ravaged by floods or fire.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re going to have a refugee problem like we\u2019ve never seen before and it\u2019s going to happen to us at the worst possible time. There will be influxes of people at a time when there will be less water to drink and less food to go around,\u201d he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Hodson\u2019s hope for the future lies in his confidence in our \u201ctremendous capacity for co-operation and compassion.\u201d But, for people to feel that compassion for others, exposure to different groups is crucial to reduce the perception that they pose a threat.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we humanize immigrants and refugees, we\u2019ll be more accepting,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s just hard to feel empathy when you\u2019re scared, and when the news keeps telling you that other people are coming to take over your life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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