A Comparison of Stereotypes of German and Turkish Students towards Balkans

Effective emotional thoughts like attitudes, stereotyped judgments and
preconceptions are dependent on both collective and individual experiences.
Experiences like reading an article or watching a movie that is based on a context
determined by the curriculum might cause individual or collective discrimination
towards different ethnic or cultural groups among students in a country. This study
aims to explore the difference between two nations which are the Turkish nation
that has many cultural and political bonds with Balkans in the history and the
German nation, which is a nation that has little or no bonds with the Balkans. The
main aim of the study is to figure out if the stereotypes towards Balkans can
change according to the country in which an individual has grown up. MANOVA
was used to figure out the difference between two capitals with regard to
stereotypes towards Balkans. Findings of the study indicated that negative
stereotype scores of students significantly changed according to the country in
which students grew up, whereas no significant difference was found for positive
stereotype scores. Moreover, it was found that Turkish students have more
negative stereotypes towards Balkans than German students.