Referencing Race = Racist? Examining Perceptions of References to a Target’s Race as Offensive

2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 459-481
Author(s):  
Conor J. O’Dea ◽  
Bayleigh N. Smith ◽  
Donald A. Saucier
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Important Implication ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Modern Society ◽  
Total N ◽  
Marginalized Groups ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Linguistic Functions

We examined majority group members’ perceptions of racial slurs, compared to what we have labeled as combination terms. These combination terms possess the same semantic and pragmatic linguistic functions as racial slurs, functioning to express negative emotion toward, and to describe, a target. Across three studies (total N = 943) racial slurs were not perceived as significantly different from combination terms. We then examined whether participants higher in social dominance beliefs reported greater perceived justification for using combination terms over racial slurs because of their lack of historical denigration of marginalized groups that racial slurs have. Participants, even those higher in socially dominant attitudes, did not perceive greater justification for the use of combination terms than racial slurs. Indeed, an important implication is that race-marking, an understudied area of social psychology, paired with general derogative terms produces terms which may function similarly to racial slurs, but, fortunately, are also similarly vilified in modern society.

System Justification or Social Dominance? A Multilevel Test of the Ideological Motivators of Perceived Discrimination

2021 ◽  
pp. 014616722110360
Author(s):  
Joaquín Bahamondes ◽  
Chris G. Sibley ◽  
Danny Osborne
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Social Dominance ◽  
Perceived Discrimination ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
System Justification ◽  
Societal Implications ◽  
Reverse Discrimination ◽  
High Status ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members

Although system-justifying beliefs often mitigate perceptions of discrimination, status-based asymmetries in the ideological motivators of perceived discrimination are unknown. Because the content and societal implications of discrimination claims are status-dependant, social dominance orientation (SDO) should motivate perceptions of (reverse) discrimination among members of high-status groups, whereas system justification should motivate the minimization of perceived discrimination among the disadvantaged. We tested these hypotheses using multilevel regressions among a nationwide random sample of New Zealand Europeans ( n = 29,169) and ethnic minorities ( n = 5,118). As hypothesized, group-based dominance correlated positively with perceived (reverse) discrimination among ethnic-majority group members, whereas system justification correlated negatively with perceived discrimination among the disadvantaged. Furthermore, the proportion of minorities within the region strengthened the victimizing effects of SDO-Dominance, but not SDO-Egalitarianism, among the advantaged. Together, these results reveal status-based asymmetries in the motives underlying perceptions of discrimination and identify a key contextual moderator of this association.

scholarly journals Christian No More: Christian Americans are Threatened by Their Impending Minority Status

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rosemary Lyn Al-Kire ◽  
Michael H. Pasek ◽  
Jo-Ann Tsang ◽  
Wade C. Rowatt
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Total N ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Election Results ◽  
Demographic Shifts ◽  
Religious Landscape ◽  
Christian Nationalism

Christian Americans are on track to become a minority of the U.S. population by midcentury. Research on racial demographic shifts shows majority-group members experience status threat when reminded of similar demographic changes. Public debate about religious freedom and the role of Christianity in America suggest that fast-changing religious demographics similarly elicit threat, and trigger defensive political stances, among Christian Americans. In two preregistered experiments (total N = 766 Christian Americans), reminders of religious demographic shifts evoked perceived threat to religious rights and freedoms, which in turn accounted for increases in Christian nationalism, conservative political ideology, and support for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Results illustrate how America’s fast-changing religious landscape can evoke threat for Christians and how this threat may influence political reasoning.

scholarly journals Diversity ideologies and intergroup attitudes: When multiculturalism is beneficial for majority group members

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 336-350 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Ng Tseung-Wong ◽  
Maykel Verkuyten
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Experimental Design ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Intergroup Relations ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
National Context ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Control

In social psychology, the background assumption of most of the research on cultural diversity ideologies is that multiculturalism is not in the interest of majority group members while colourblindness is. However, this assumption may not hold in a context in which multiculturalism benefits the majority group. Two studies investigated the association between multiculturalism and in-group bias amongst Hindu majority members in Mauritius. In Study 1, survey data showed that those who highly identified as Hindus reported less bias when they endorsed multiculturalism. Using an experimental design, Study 2 demonstrated that higher compared to lower majority group identifiers showed stronger in-group bias in colourblindness, polyculturalism, and control conditions, but not in a multiculturalism condition. In contrast to the existing research conducted in Western countries, these findings demonstrate that multiculturalism rather than colourblindness can be reassuring for high majority group identifiers. It is concluded that the meaning and impact of cultural diversity ideologies for intergroup relations depend on the national context.

A Primer on De-Identifying and Anonymizing Social Psychology Data

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Butera
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Annotated Bibliography ◽  
Identification Process ◽  
Marginalized Groups

This paper intends to provide a basic primer on de-identifying and anonymizing techniques, with a focus on protecting the identities of subjects belonging to marginalized groups, without erasing them from the data. The primer presents basic de-identification terminology, an annotated bibliography, and a collection of software and programs that can be employed in the de-identification process. Researchers should be aware they must use their discretion to weigh the usability of data against protection of subjects.

Comparability of personality test scores for immigrants and majority group members: Some dutch findings

1997 ◽  
Vol 23 (5) ◽  
pp. 849-859 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan te Nijenhuis ◽  
Henk van der Flier ◽  
Liesbeth van Leeuwen
Keyword(s):  
Test Scores ◽  
Personality Test ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Group Members

scholarly journals Whites for racial justice: How contact with Black Americans predicts support for collective action among White Americans

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (6) ◽  
pp. 893-912 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hema Preya Selvanathan ◽  
Pirathat Techakesari ◽  
Linda R. Tropp ◽  
Fiona Kate Barlow
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Racial Justice ◽  
Group Efficacy ◽  
Total N ◽  
Group Members ◽  
White Guilt

Advantaged group members have an important role to play in creating social change, and intergroup contact has tremendous implications in shaping intergroup relations. However, little research has examined how intergroup contact predicts advantaged group members’ inclinations toward collective action to support the interests of disadvantaged groups. The present research investigates how contact with Black Americans shapes White Americans’ willingness to engage in collective action for racial justice and support for the Black Lives Matter movement. Three studies of White Americans (total N = 821) consistently reveal that positive contact with Black Americans predicts greater support for collective action through a sequential process of fostering greater feelings of empathy for Black Americans and anger over injustice. These findings hold even when taking into account other relevant psychological factors (i.e., White guilt and identification, negative contact, group efficacy, and moral convictions). The present research contributes to our understanding of how advantaged group members come to engage in social change efforts.

Synagogue and State in the Israeli Military: A Story of “Inappropriate Integration”

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 223-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Carmit Yefet
Keyword(s):  
Multiple Identities ◽  
Religious Community ◽  
Minority Women ◽  
Religious Minority ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Minority Member ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Military ◽  
Female Soldiers

Abstract The encounter between synagogue and state in Israel’s military context raises a variety of complex questions that defy conventional paradigms. While religious liberty continues to occupy a special place in most liberal democratic thought, the legal and philosophical literature pondering its various dimensions has largely lost analytic sight of the fascinating intersection of military and religion. This article embarks on analyzing the appropriate integration between loyalty to God and to country, and between religious male and secular female soldiers. Evaluating examples of synagogue-state tensions and accommodationist policies, this article explores the manner and extent to which the Israeli military (IDF) responds to the observant soldier’s multiple identities as a religious minority member and a faithful citizen of the larger secular polity. Against this backdrop, the article analyzes the vexed challenges posed to multicultural theory by the equivocal status of the Orthodox community as a numerical minority but “power majority” within the military, and by the IDF’s unique exercise of multiculturalist protection, termed herein “external restrictions,” imposed on majority group members. It concludes that the ongoing “religionization” of the IDF through the 2002 “Appropriate Integration” regulation has served as a powerful counterforce to gender equality, fostering a growing practice of female exclusion through which women are disenfranchised from core, non-negotiable protections of citizenship. The article identifies as the prime casualty of this aggressive multicultural accommodation not only secular women’s hard-won equality of opportunity, but also the very rights and status of minority women within their own religious community.

scholarly journals Preference for hierarchy is associated with reduced empathy and increased counter-empathy towards others, especially out-group targets

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sa-kiera Tiarra Jolynn Hudson ◽  
Mina Cikara ◽  
Jim Sidanius
Keyword(s):  
Social Dominance ◽  
Group Membership ◽  
Social Dominance Orientation ◽  
Group Setting ◽  
Group Boundaries ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Prejudicial Attitudes ◽  
Status Differences

The capacity to empathize with others facilitates prosocial behavior. People’s willingness and capacity to empathize, however, is often contingent upon the target’s group membership – people are less empathic towards those they categorize as out-group members. In competitive or threatening intergroup contexts, people may even feel pleasure (counter-empathy) in response to out-group members’ misfortunes. Social dominance orientation (SDO), or the extent to which people prefer and promote group-based inequalities, is an ideological variable that is associated with a competitive view of the world, increased prejudicial attitudes, and decreased empathy. Thus, higher levels of SDO should be associated with reduced empathy and increased counter-empathy in general, but especially towards those whose subjugation maintains group inequalities. Across three studies we show that among White individuals, higher SDO levels are associated with less empathy, and more counter-empathy in response to others’ good and bad fortunes. More importantly, these reductions in empathy and increases in schadenfreude as a function of SDO were significantly stronger for Asian and Black targets than for in-group White targets when group boundaries were made salient prior to the empathy ratings. Finally, in a fourth study we show that this phenomenon is not dependent upon a history of status differences: higher SDO scores were associated with decreased empathy and increased counter-empathy for competitive out-group (relative to in-group) targets in a novel group setting. We discuss implications of these effects for hierarchy maintenance.

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