Previous studies have provided various explanations for people's
attitudes toward foreign countries, but we still know very little about
causal mechanisms of attitude formation. In this study, we propose that
stereotypes play an important role in affecting individuals’ attitudes
toward foreign countries. Drawing on survey data collected in 2019 and
2020 in China, we apply the stereotype content model to analyze Chinese
people's attitudes toward five countries: the United States, Japan,
India, Tanzania, and China itself. Our analyses show that: (a) Chinese
respondents stereotype the five countries differently along two
dimensions—warmth and competence—with the extremely high evaluations of
China itself, indicating in-group favoritism; (b) warmth–competence
combinations are closely linked with four emotions—admiration, envy,
pity, and contempt—but are also affected by historical and cultural
contexts; (c) stereotype contents can predict favorable attitudes toward
foreign countries, with warmth stereotypes being more predictive than
competence stereotypes; emotions can also predict favorability; and (d)
stereotypes of countries are similar to stereotypes of persons from
those countries, as is the case for emotions and attitudes.
Lemeng Liang, Yongai Jin, Jie Zhou and Yu Xie
. Stereotype contents, emotions, and public attitudes: How do Chinese people stereotype nations and national groups?[J]. Chinese journal of sociology, 2022
, 8(1)
: 52
-78
.
DOI: 10.1177/2057150X211072961