Different Antisemitisms: On Three Distinct Forms of Antisemitism in C | Page 16

As displayed in Figure 16 this picture also holds when we ask these Jewish respondents
whether they personally have witnessed anyone being attacked physically or verbally because
he/she is Jewish:

These findings are remarkable in light of the fact that Sweden and France are among the
countries where Jews have a stronger sense of belonging than in other countries (cf. Figure
13).
How is it that there is a seemingly positive correlation between the Jews’ feeling of
belonging to the country and experiences of physical attacks on Jews? One possible reason
might be that although they are relatively well integrated in society, they are still regarded by
some as a rather alien element in society, which is perceived as an ambiguity among those
who seek “clarity” and “pure lines”. The phenomenon of “intolerance of ambiguity” is well
known in social psychology6 and it has been scientifically established that the perception of
ambiguity triggers aggression among those for whom it is too much of a psychological
challenge to harbour ambiguities.7 The fact that a majority of Jews in Germany were well
integrated, not to say even assimilated, into the German society up to the Nazi

6

Fraenkel-Brunswick, E. (1948). Intolerance of ambiguity as an emotional and perceptual personality variable,
in Journal of Personality, 18, pp. 108-123 and Furnham, A. & Marks, J. (2013). Tolerance of Ambiguity: A
Review of the Recent Literature, in Psychology Vol.4, No.9,