Australian Psychologist
Volume 40, Issue 3, 2005, Pages 170-178

Attitudes toward Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers: The role of false beliefs and other social-psychological variables (Article)

Pedersen A.* , Clarke S. , Dudgeon P. , Griffiths B.
  • a School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
  • b School of Psychology, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia
  • c Centre for Aboriginal Studies, Curtin University of Technology, Australia
  • d School of Psychology, Curtin University of Technology, Australia

Abstract

Australia has a long and chequered history regarding relations between different cultural groups. Indigenous, Asian, Yugoslav, Italian and Arabic Australians have all suffered from negativity directed toward them by "mainstream" Australia. At the beginning of the 21st century there has been much publicity about two groups: Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers. In this paper, we examine community attitudes toward these two groups, in particular the role of false beliefs in such attitudes. We then set out both the similarities and differences in these two highly related sets of attitudes, and conclude that Australia would appear not to be as accepting of a multi-cultural society as we sometimes believe, and on which we often pride ourselves. There are many social-psychological and structural issues related to negative attitudes toward Indigenous Australians and asylum seekers; much work needs to be carried out to address these. © 2005 Australian Psychological Society Ltd.

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Link
https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-27744474324&doi=10.1080%2f00050060500243483&partnerID=40&md5=a973bb4d95affd9f36bd6e4a7b2d3852
DOI: 10.1080/00050060500243483
ISSN: 00050067
Cited by: 37
Original Language: English