The role of intergroup threat perception and religious attitude in prejudice regarding Syrians in time of biological disaster (COVID-19) and natural disaster (earthquake)

The main problem of this study is to reveal the role of individuals' religious attitudes and threat perceptions in their prejudiced attitudes in the process of disasters, which are social traumas. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis is to describe the change in the prejudiced attitudes of the local people living in the same time period between the earthquake, which is a natural disaster, and the COVID-19 pandemic, which is a biological disaster, and what role their religious attitudes play in these changes. In order to understand this experienced situation in more depth and to better understand the approaches of the participants to the current situation, qualitative research method was used in this thesis study and phenomenology was preferred as a design. Purposive sampling type was determined in order to create richness among the situations. 25 participants were included in the study. The questions in the interview form prepared were asked to the participants and the data obtained were recorded with a voice recorder. Then, the data were analyzed through descriptive and content analysis techniques. In this thesis, it has been seen that belonging to the same religion and religious belief reduces or eliminates prejudiced attitudes towards Syrian refugees. However, it has been understood that the occurrence of disasters such as earthquake and COVID-19 caused positive attitudes of the local people towards Syrian refugees and a decrease in prejudiced attitudes. It was concluded that the participants had symbolic and realistic threat perceptions towards Syrian refugees. It has been observed that religious similarity has a positive effect on the reduction of these threat perceptions.