Social distance and attitudes towards ethnically mixed marriages

PSIHOLOGIJA, 2008, Vol. 41 (2), str. 149-162 UDC 159.922.1-057.874:316.356.2 SOCIAL DISTANCE AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS ETHNICALLY MIXED MARRIAGES Maja Kandido-Jakšić 1 XIII Belgrade’s Grammar School, Serbia The paper presents the results of a survey that was designed to examine ethnic distance of some Belgrade′s graduating students towards seven nations from ex-Yugoslavia. The research has been carried out by social distance scale, which makes possible to investigate the readiness for establishing the relationships of various degrees of closeness relative to different religion or nation with special attention to ethnic marriages. It is necessary to emphasize that the phenomenon of heterogeneous marriages has definitely been of exceptional significance for every society because, by living together and accepting elements from another culture, links are created between different groups and nations. It has been shown that ethnic distance is decreasing 11 years after the war if we compare it with the results obtained during the war, although the level of acceptance and confidence that existed before the war was not surveyed. According to obtained results we can expect that by deliberation of mass-media and complete normalization of the economic and cultural relations among the new established states in the territory of ex-Yugoslavia, in the future new ethnically mixed marriages in this region will be established. It should be pointed out that those results have a great political importance, because one can conclude that ethnic prejudices, which have appeared during the war, are not deeply rooted. Key words: ethnic distance, mixed marriages, war propaganda, Yugoslavia 1 : Maja Kandido-Jakšić INTRODUCTION Ethnic prejudices have always constituted the main obstacle in maintaining cooperation and good relations among people and have always been used as an instrument for aggravating relations and provoking intolerance, conflict and war. Attachment to one’s nation may range from the extremes of complete denial of the nation to its transformation into nationalistic, narcissistic and sometimes, in moments of crisis, genocidal behavior. Nationalists usually see their own state as a supreme value what prevents critical insight into one’s own nation. They generally appeal to national affiliation and loyalty towards one’s own nation and blame members of other nations for certain social crises. This representing form of regressive consciousness has tendency to seek a scapegoat, in the psychological sense, and is often skilfully used for political and manipulative purposes thus preventing identification of the real culprits and real ways of resolving current problems. It is known that before the disintegration of Yugoslavia many results of the study of the ethnic distance had shown that ethnic prejudices were quite minor and that during and after the war they drastically increased. In this research we investigate the ethnic distance towards some nations of ex-Yugoslavia eleven years after the war, and special attention is paid to social attitudes towards ethnically mixed marriages, because the existence of mixed marriages points out an absence of negative national prejudices and a high degree of proximity, i.e., acceptance of another ethnic group. Social distance in ex-Yugoslavia Numerous studies of ethnic distance undertaken in the former Yugoslavia from 1960 -1990, show that distancing from other nations was consistently found to be small, even less than among the populations of much more developed countries. Many results published during the eighties, showed that 2/3 of the persons questioned in ex-Yugoslavia would marry a member of another nation and Yugoslav populations displayed relatively small ethnic distancing. Many young people even considered the national framework too narrow for identification (Fiamengo, 1960; Supek, 1963; Rot & Havelka, 1973; Pantić, 1967; 1989; 1991). Pantić has found out, in the global analysis of numerous investigations within the period of 1960 to 1989, that the ethnic distance upon the areas of Yugoslavia even shows the trend of continuing decrease. Over 60% of the persons questioned in exYugoslavia had not formed any ethnic distance in their attitudes, accepting members of other nations in various types of formal and informal relations: neighbour, friend, boss, spouse, and the like. Research carried in 1989 showed that the Croats (71%) had the greatest preference for working with the Serbs and the Yugoslavs, while the Serbs (59%) preferred the Croats as their working partners to members of their own nation (Pantić, 1989). 150 Social Distance and Attitudes Towards Ethnically Mixed Marriages According to studies on national equality, only 16.2% of the youth in exYugoslavia considered that national equality had not been achieved. Similar research on the inhabitants of Belgrade showed that (86%) declared that the situation in interethnic relations was good and satisfactory. A large percentage of the population in Serbia believed that the nationalism was harmful to the unity of the country. The idea of the national state was not yet dominant among the majority of the population, albeit in 1974 it was underlined as a political ideal by the nationalist political elite circles. In the eve of the “Croatian spring”, paradoxically the least ethnic distance was manifested by the Croats (Rot & Havelka, 1973). A very important study was made in the eve of the war, according to a project of the Consortium of Social Sciences Institutes “Position of Nations and Inter-ethnic Relations in Croatia” in which it was seen that a large majority of the persons polled expressed disagreement with the idea that every nation must have its own state, i.e., over a half of the population rejected the idea that a person can feel safe only if he lives in an environment where the majority belongs to his nation (Vrcan et al. 1986). Studies by Katunarić in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina had also shown that until the disintegration of the common state and creation of “national states” nationalism was not significantly represented in that region (Katunarić, 1986). In the eve of conflict, Dugandžić even wrote: “The expectations that national misunderstandings will spread from state affairs to those who are far from power have not proved justified. People still trust their own experiences more than news which comes from the outside; they do not think that their fellow citizens represent a danger for them because they belong to another nation” (Flere, 1989; Dugandžić, 1991). According to psychological research on ethnic distance in 1989-1990, just before conflict in Bosnia, in Croatia and Herzegovina and Krajina, almost no ethnic distance among the Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks was found. There was no national tension and there was belief in the possibility of living together, since (65.8%) Croats and (72%) Serbs considered that inter-ethnic relations were good in the place they liv (...truncated)