The Frustration-Aggression Hypothesis and the Financial Crisis: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of Prejudice Expression as a Response to Economic Hardship

Jordi Munoz panel: The frustration-aggression hypothesis suggests that when faced with external threat, individuals are likely to respond with redirecting their grievances in the direction of most vulnerable social groups and which they are least likely to identify themselves with. The following paper will explore the possibility that the economic crisis has potentially contributed to rise of prejudice among the most strongly affected countries. It will employ quantitative analysis in order to test whether a significant change in attitudes has been detected as a response to the 2008 economic crisis in Europe. It will compare pre- and post-crisis temporal domains as well as distinguish between different levels of crisis affliction. It is expected that citizens in states affected by the highest levels of unemployment and austerity measures are more likely than others to express prejudice toward ethnic, sexual and religious minorities.