CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2013
| Author | Savickas, Mindaugas |
|---|---|
| Title | Influences of Power Asymmetry and Value Similarity on the Perception of Threat: The Hungarian Case |
| Summary | International conflicts are a historically persistent part of relations between countries. With this in mind it is no surprise that many scholars focus on this subfield of international relations. A specific topic that was addressed in this paper was threat perception. The research based itself on Rousseau, Müller and Garcia-Retamero’s Spanish-German study on how threat perception is influenced by power asymmetry, which according to rationalists increases threat perception, and value similarity, which according to social constructivists decreased threat perception. The paper put forth three major goals: to try and replicate their findings, to compare the results gathered in Germany and Spain with Hungarian respondents and to build upon the model more by testing how general knowledge, interaction and past suffering influences threat perception. The findings strongly supported the replicated finding of the social constructivist approach – value similarity does decrease threat perception. Additionally the study found that unlike German and Spanish respondents, Hungarians are more robust in their perception of Russians, their opinions are harder to influence. Finally, the study found that interaction is a good predictor of increased enthusiasm and warm feelings towards Russians in the Hungarian sample. |
| Supervisor | Levente Littvay |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2013/savickas_mindaugas.pdf |
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