THE MANY FACES OF INTOLERANCE – A STUDY OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES IN SWEDEN IN THE 2009/2010 SCHOOL YEAR REPORT SERIES 1:2010 Taking history as our starting point, we study contemporary processes that can lead to intolerance and injustice. We start out from the fact of the the Holocaust and other cases of genocide but also from events in Sweden. Through education, culture and discussion, the Living History Forum works to strengthen democracy and increase awareness of the equal value of all people. This study has been carried out by the Living History Forum. It can be downloaded or ordered from www.levandehistoria.se Authors: Birgitta Löwander in collaboration with Anders Lange, senior advisor at the Living History Forum. Living History Forum Stora Nygatan 10–12, Box 2123, 103 13 Stockholm Tel.: 08-723 87 50, Fax: 08-723 87 59 [email protected] www.levandehistoria.se Graphic design: Soya Kommunikation Printed by: Edita 2011 ISBN: 978-91-86261-14-6 © Living History Forum, 2011 Contents Foreword PAGE 4 Summary PAGE 5 1. INTROduCTION PAGE 10 With the vision of reducing intolerance among young people PAGE 10 Structure of the report PAGE 11 2. CONCEPTS, RESEARCH AND QUESTIONS AT ISSUE PAGE 12 2.1 The concepts of tolerance and intolerance PAGE 12 2.2 Driving forces behind prejudice and intolerant attitudes PAGE 16 2.3 Research on tolerance and intolerance PAGE 17 2.4 The purpose of the survey, definitions and questions PAGE 20 3. RESEARCH DESIGN AND ANALYTICAL PROCESS PAGE 25 3.1 Sample, data collection and survey population PAGE 25 3.2 Generalisability of the results PAGE 26 3.3 Questionnaire PAGE 26 3.4 Register data PAGE 27 3.5 Methods of analysis PAGE 27 4. STudEnts’ aTTITudES TOWARDS VULNERABLE GROupS, SCHOOL YEAR 2009/2010 PAGE 31 4.1 Five indices and dimensions of opinion PAGE 31 4.2 Correlation between upper secondary school students’ attitudes and their social environment PAGE 35 The significance of social background PAGE 35 The significance of friendships PAGE 38 The significance of the character of the school PAGE 40 The significance of the school environment PAGE 43 The significance of teaching PAGE 46 The significance of interest in social issues P AGE 50 The significance of opinions on respected characteristics P AGE 55 The significance of opinions on “Swedishness” P AGE 57 4.3 Summary – significant factors for tolerant and intolerant attitudes PAGE 60 5. CHANGES IN ATTITudE OVER TIMe – comPARING 2003 AND 2009 PAGE 64 6. CONCLudING REMARKS PAGE 68 Tables PAGE 72 Bibliography PAGE 99 Foreword The Living History Forum bases its work on ped to carry it out. I hope that the report not only the principle of the equal value of all people to provides information but also inspires action. strengthen democracy, tolerance and human The report was written by Dr Birgitta Lö w an- rights. The authority’s vision and strategy for der, at the Living History Forum. Professor eme- 2007–2013 focuses its work around combating ritus Anders Lange, senior advisor at the Living- and reducing intolerance in society in the long History Forum analysed the data and wrote the term. This survey is part of that vision. section on methodology. Mikael Hjerm, research In 2003 the Living History Forum and the assistant at Umeå University helped to process National Council for Crime Prevention carried out the statistics. Another four experts formed a a nationwide survey of school pupils in Sweden reference group and were involved in the prepa- to map and describe the extent of intolerance. ratory work with the measurement instrument: Six years later the Living History Forum is once Dr Henrik Bachner, Dr Gunilla Danielsson, more launching a survey of young people to map Dr Christina Rodell Olgac and research fellow intolerant attitudes and approaches. Jonas Otterbeck. The survey presented here has a different focus from the 2003 survey although intolerance here, as previously, measures attitudes to vul- Stockholm, October 2010 nerable groups. Questions about criminal beha- viour, individual vulnerability and contact with Eskil Franck extreme right movements have been replaced ­­­ Director, Living History Forum by questions on social activities and interests. The focus has shifted from attention on the basis of extreme opinions to multiple, uncertain and unclear opinions. The survey seeks to find links be-tween the students’ attitude to vulne- rable groups and their home environments and the conditions offered by schools and residential areas across Sweden. We would like to thank the upper secondary school students who took part in this survey, as well as the head teachers and teachers who hel- 4 THE MANY FACES OF INTOLERANCE – A STUDY OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES IN SWEDEN IN THE 2009/2010 SCHOOL YEAR Summary this survey we chose to present the results divi- THE MANY FACES OF INTOLERANCE ded into three categories: positive, ambivalent The Living History Forum is working to monitor and negative attitudes. Tolerant and intolerant intolerance in society that spans the past to the atti-tudes constitute the extremes of positive and present day. Part of this work is to survey, on a negative approaches, respectively. recurring basis, how well democratic values are We consciously refrained from creating measure rooted in society and to keep a watchful eye on ments of general intolerance and have repor- intolerant tendencies. This was first surveyed in ted the different measurements of attitudes to 2003 and repeated in 2009. The current study immigrants, Muslims, Roma, Jews and homosex- comprises the first stage of a long-term plan. uals separately because we consider these to be The purpose of this survey is to describe and distinct dimensions of opinion. assess the prevalence of tolerant and intolerant attitudes of upper secondary school students to ORGANISATION OF THE SURVEY different groups in society who encounter pre- judice, discrimination or other forms of victimi- Statistics Sweden was responsible for selecting the sation. In this survey we chose to study the at- sample and collecting the data in schools. Head titudes of the students to Roma, Muslims, Jews, teachers and class teachers were contacted by Sta- non-European refugees and people with homo- tistics Sweden, whose field staff then visited class- sexual preferences.1 es and handed out and collected questionnaires. The report has been given the title The many Statistics Sweden compiled data files and remo- faces of intolerance to emphasise the fact that into- ved identity data. A reference group of researchers lerance is a complex, changing and hard to encap- worked with the Living History Forum to assist sulate phenomenon which is directed at different in designing the questionnaire. The results were groups in society with varying intensity, takes dif- analysed and the report was written by sociologists ferent forms and is expressed in different ways linked to the Living History Forum. on different occasions. It includes structural pat- The survey covered a total of 4,674 upper se- terns and temporary opinion trends. condary school students in years 1 and 3 at a total Where the line between tolerance and into- of 154 upper secondary schools in Sweden, i.e. lerance should be drawn is open to debate. In 16 and 18 year-olds. Widespread questionnaire 1 The Living History Forum intends to initiate a separate study on the attitudes of young people to people with disabilities. THE MANY FACES OF INTOLERANCE – A STUDY OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES IN SWEDEN IN THE 2009/2010 SCHOOL YEAR 5 fatigue among head teachers particularly in the GENDER AND AGE cities combined with extended work experience periods for students on vocational programmes Distinct patterns emerged when student attitu- contributed to quite a high non-response rate on des were compared with regard to gender and the part of schools and classes alike. The data age. The results showed unambiguous and large was calibrated to ensure the generalisability of differences between the attitudes of girls compa- the results. red to boys. The girls had significantly more posi- Students’ attitudes to vulnerable groups were tive attitudes to each and every vulnerable group measured using a large number of questions and than the boys did. attitude-related statements and were analysed There were also differences in the attitudes using statistical methods. The survey was de- of the students in the different years. Students signed in order for particular comparisons to be who were 18 years old and in year 3 at upper se- be drawn with the student survey carried out in condary school had predominantly more positive 2003 by the Swedish National Council for Crime attitudes to each and every vulnerable group than Prevention (Brå) on behalf of the Living History the 16 year-old students in year 1. Forum (Ring and Morgentau 2004). NATIONAL BACKGROUND POSITIVE, NEGATIVE AND AMBIVALENT AND RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION ATTITudE PATTERNS A more complex pattern emerged when student The quantitative measurements of the attitudes attitudes were compared with regard to religious of the students differed for the five groups the affiliation and national background. Students students were asked about. Variations were large with a foreign background were, not unexpec- between students with positive and ambivalent tedly, in the majority among those with a positive attitudes. More than half of all students had a attitude to both immigrants and Muslims. The positive attitude to homosexuals whilst only a proportion with a positive attitude to Muslims quarter of all students had a positive attitude to was substantially less than the proportion positive Roma. The proportions with positive attitudes to immigrants. This correlates with the fact that to immigrants, Muslims and Jews, respectively, the students with foreign backgrounds include fell somewhere in between.