Adil Dünya İnancı ve Algılanan Kontrol Eksikliğinin Suriyeli Göçmenlere Yönelik Yardım Etme Davranışı Üzerindeki Etkisi

Abstract

Since 2011, the ongoing Syrian refugee intensity has created a major change in Turkey. Although refugees are welcomed by some of the citizens, they are also exposed to prejudice and discrimination by others. Research has shown that underlying the negative attitudes and behaviors of citizens towards refugees are concerns that refugees will experience adaptation problems, disrupt their order, and use their resources. On the other hand, sociopolitical control, which expresses our perception of control over the events and situations happening around us, with the belief of a just world that expresses how fair the individuals perceive the events that happen to them or others, can be seen as reflections of the need for predictable and controlled world order. For this reason, it was thought that belief in a just world and perceived sociopolitical control would have an impact on individuals’ intention to help refugees. Accordingly, two experiments were conducted to examine the predictive effect of target group membership, belief in a just world, and perceived sociopolitical control on helping intention. Before the experiments, a preliminary study was carried out to select newspaper articles to be used for target group membership manipulation. Two additional preliminary studies were conducted to adapt to Sociopolitical Control Measurement to Turkish. In Experiment I, the general belief in a just world and perceived sociopolitical control of the participants between the ages of 18-25 were measured. Later, some of the participants read a newspaper article about the thief broke into the house of a Turkish family while others read a newspaper article about the thief broke into the house of a Syrian family. Then, the participants were told that an aid campaign was organized for the family in the newspaper and an aid form was given. In the form, the participants were asked whether they would like to help (yes/no) and information about the amount of help was received. Participants were divided into groups according to target group membership (Turkish family/Syrian family), and scores of the general belief in the just world (low/high) and sociopolitical control (low/high), and the predictions of these variables on aid intentions were analyzed using the Binary Logistic Regression Analysis. Results show that the participants in the Turkish family condition showed more intention to help than the participants in the Syrian family condition. Also, participants with high sociopolitical control displayed more helpful intentions than those with lower levels. On the other hand, the general just world beliefs did not have a significant effect on helping intention. In Experiment II, the same research pattern was repeated, however, instead of the general belief in a just world, personal belief in a just world was used. Participants here also showed more intention to help the Turkish family than the Syrian family. It was observed that participants with high personal just world beliefs showed more intention to help. Sociopolitical control did not have a significant effect on helping intention in Experiment II. The interaction effects of variables on the intention to help in both experiments are not significant.