Social perception of international relations. Cognitive predictors of laymen's attitudes towards international events

This paper presents the role of some cognitive predictors: 1/ the level of perceived entitativity of the EU, 2/ perception of the UE-USA relationship on the enemy-ally dimension, 3/ the level of generalized trust in people, and 4/ the level of trust in international institutions (UN, NATO, EU) - in forming positive expectations about Poland's accession to the UE, attitudes towards the presence of Polish troops in Iraq and fears of terrorism. The analyses are based on data obtained in May 2004 from guided personal interviews run on a representative random sample of Poles (N = 1000). The results of multiple regression analyses showed that Poles' expectations about Poland's accession to the UE are more positive (the level of hope is bigger) when perceived entitativity of the EU, perceived cooperativeness between the EU and USA, generalized trust in people and trust in international institutions are higher. The same cognitive variables are significantly associated with the level of support of Polish troops in Iraq. The reversed pattern of relations was found between these cognitive variables and the level of fear of terrorism. peerReviewed publishedVersion