Perceived threats from out-groups play a significant role in negative intergroup relations. The aim of our study was to explore what types of threats young Slovaks feel from three out-groups: immigrants from African and Arab countries, the Roma, and Slovak Hungarians. By conducting six focus groups (N = 42) with university students (M = 22), we identified several concerns about these out-groups. We found out that they can be categorized into four threat types in line with Stephan et al. (2009): (1) symbolic group threats, (2) symbolic individual threats, (3) realistic group threats, and (4) realistic individual threats. However, we identified threats which have not been identified in previous threat literature, e. g. language barrier, sexual harassment, and annoyance, or were not researched as threat, e. g. theft, abuse of social system, and lack of trust. Therefore, we aim to develop a new measure which allows researchers to focus on a broader scale of perceived threats in prejudice reduction. As we have explored different concerns posed by different out-groups, we argue that in prejudice reduction it is important to focus on those threats that are felt by the majority from a particular out- group, and not to perceive intergroup threat as one general factor.

• Keywords
• university students,
• MeSH
• Arabs MeSH
• Adult psychology   MeSH
• Emigrants and Immigrants MeSH
• Ethnic and Racial Minorities MeSH
• Ethnic Violence * psychology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Young Adult psychology   MeSH
• Attitude MeSH
• Racism psychology   MeSH
• Roma MeSH
• Interviews as Topic MeSH
• Group Processes MeSH
• Students psychology   MeSH
• Check Tag
• Adult psychology   MeSH
• Humans MeSH
• Young Adult psychology   MeSH
• Geographicals
• Slovakia MeSH