The Social Worldviews of Israelis and Attitudes Toward Peace With the Palestinians: The Mediating Roles of Ideological Attitudes and Perceptions of Threat

The purpose of the present study was to examine the connections that the dangerous and competitive social worldviews of Israelis had with their attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians. More specifically, the focus was on the possibility that the associations these social worldviews had with attitudes toward peace may be mediated by the ideological attitudes of right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation as well as the perceived threat from the Palestinians in a large community sample of Israelis (N = 1,236). The results of a serial parallel multiple mediation analysis revealed partial support for our hypotheses. As expected, the association that the dangerous social worldview had with attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians was mediated by right-wing authoritarianism and perceived threat from the Palestinians. However, the association that the competitive social worldview had with attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians differed from our expectations. More specifically, the competitive social worldview had a negative indirect association with attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians through both right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation but there was also an unexpected positive indirect association through perceived threat from the Palestinians. Discussion focuses on the implications of these results for understanding the roles that ideological attitudes and perceived threat may play in the connections between the social worldviews of Israelis and their attitudes toward peace with the Palestinians.