Attitudes towards Syrians: A model testing and an empathy focused intervention study

Turkey is one of the countries with the highest Syrian refugee population hosted in the world. In this context, evaluating social cohesion process in terms of the local society is a necessity. The aim of the current study was to examine the role of social contact, intercultural sensitivity, intergroup anxiety, gender, age, education, abroad experience and city on attitudes of Turkish local society towards Syrians. In this regard, data were collected from 207 local community members living in Ankara and Adana provinces of Turkey. The criterion for choosing these provinces is the difference between the numbers and the ratio of Syrians to the general population. According to the analysis, qualitative social contact that indicates close interpersonal relations, intercultural sensitivity and intergroup anxiety predicted the attitudes of the local community towards Syrians. While social contact and intercultural sensitivity positively predicted positive attitudes towards Syrians, intergroup anxiety predicted negatively. In addition, intergroup anxiety had a mediating role between qualitative social contact, intercultural sensitivity and attitudes towards Syrians. Moreover, while there was no gender difference in attitude towards Syrians, females were higher in intercultural sensitivity than males. There was also no difference between education levels in the attitudes towards Syrians. Furthermore, individuals with abroad experience had higher positive attitudes towards Syrians and higher intercultural sensitivity. In the correlation analysis, although there is a negative correlation between age and positive attitude towards Syrians, the age of individuals is not strong enough to predict attitude towards Syrians. Lastly, there was no significant difference in attitudes towards Syrians between the people living in Adana and Ankara. For the second part of the thesis, based on the results of the survey study, an intervention program was developed for Turkish local community. The aim of the empathy-focused intercultural communication program is to increase positive attitudes towards all immigrants, especially for Syrians. Adult local community members over the age of 18 were reached through an announcement about the program. In this context, 52 people in total stated that they would like to participate in the program and registered. Participants were randomly divided into two groups as experimental and control groups. In this context, 26 people were assigned to the experimental group and 26 people to the control group. According to the results of the 4-week online program, Empathy Focused Intercultural Communication Program for Turkish Local Society showed a positive promissory approach for decreasing negative attitudes towards Syrian refugees and increasing emphatic approach. Lastly, these results, possible reasons of them, limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed and the possible implications were shared. Key words: attitudes towards Syrians, integration, intercultural sensitivity, intervention program to increase positive attitudes towards Syrians, social acceptance