Attitudes to 'Us/Them' and 'Close Person/Stranger' in Residents of Cities of Different Types ¹³⁶⁹

The paper analyzes social psychological needs and attitudes to particular others, abstract others and others differentiated according to the criteria of 'us/them', 'close person/stranger' in residents of megalopolises, large cities and small towns. The research outcomes indicate that there are significant differences in social psychologi- cal needs and attitudes to others in subjects depending on the type of city they live in. The paper provides a full description of the social psychological features of such atti- tudes in the residents of a megalopolis, a large city and a small town, and shows how the residents' unconscious attitudes to abstract others are affected by the type of the city, whereas attitudes to particular others remain unaffected. The paper also reveals that the intensity of one's unconscious positive attitudes to abstracts others (other people) and to others differentiated according to whether they belong to 'us/them' (residents of 'our' city, natives, those who came from outside) drops significantly with an increase in the size of the city.

Keywords: attitude to the Other, territorial and spatial factors of one's attitudes, characteristics of one's attitude, attitudes to particular and abstract others, us/them, close person/stranger, type of city.

Column: Experimental Research