Relationships of Social Dominance Orientation and Empathy with Perception of Syrian Refugees as Threat:Structural Equation Modeling with The Examples of Çankaya and Altındağ

Abstract

Syrians have been obligated to leave their country and seek to asylum to the different countries mainly their neighbor countries; Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon. At the year of 2018, over 3,6 million Syrians live under temporary protection in Turkey.In this study, perceptions towards Syrian refugees in Ankara were measured by means of the indexes of local people in Altındağ district where Syrians are populated to a high degree and Çankaya district where Syrian are populated to a low degree. Based on the questionnaire survey with 818 people living in these two districts, quantitative data of five-point likert scales were obtained to measure social dominance orientation, empathy and threat. Six hypotheses are tested by structural equation modeling with attained variables as social dominance, social egalitarianism, empathy, socioeconomic threat and politic threat in the related data. Based on the related theories, mainly Intergroup Contact Theory and Integrated Threat Theory, interactions of sub-dimensions of social dominance orientation (social dominance and social egalitarianism) and empathy with the perception towards Syrian refugees (socioeconomic threat and political threat) are analyzed comparatively for both districts.