Stereotypes and attitudes of the inhabitants of Malopolska to elected representatives cultures

Introduction. In Poland, contacts with people who speak a different language, a different skin color, different religion, belonging to a different culture, and thus having different customs and beliefs, has grown significantly after Polish accession to the European Union family.

Aim. The aim of the study was to determine the opinion of the inhabitants of Malopolska about stereotypes, prejudice and discrimination and their attitudes towards people with different cultural areas.

Material and methods. The study was performed on a group of 120 people living in the southern Malopolska. To carry out the study used a questionnaire of his own authorship and Bogardus scale, standardized as a research tool. Used for statistical analysis the U Mann-Whitney, Spearman.

Results. Most of the respondents had contact with stereotypes about minority cultures. All the respondents were able to replace the existing stereotypes about the the Gypsies, Muslims and Jews. Respondents showed the greatest distance towards the Gypsies minority, the smallest in relation to the Muslim minority.

Conclusions. Malopolska is a region which is inhabited by a number of persons belonging to cultural and national minorities. Daily contact with these people should lead to the understanding of their culture, tradition and behavior, and not to discrimination, harassment, rejection. It is very important to prevent potential social conflicts, which may occur if we act with prejudice usually resulting from established negative stereotypes.

Nursing Topics 2015; 23 (1): 27–33