Evaluating Validity Properties of 25 Race-Related Scales

Racial attitudes, beliefs, and motivations lie at the center of many of the most influential theories of prejudice and discrimination. The extent to which such theories can meaningfully explain behavior hinges on accurate measurement of these latent constructs. We evaluated the validity properties of 25 race-related scales in a sample of 1,031,207 respondents using modern approaches such as dynamic fit indices, Item Response Theory, and nomological nets. Despite showing adequate internal reliability, many scales demonstrated poor model fit and had latent score distributions showing clear floor or ceiling effects, results that illustrate deficiencies in measures’ ability to capture their intended construct. Nomological nets further suggested that the theoretical space of “racial prejudice” is crowded with scales that may not actually capture meaningfully distinct latent constructs. We provide concrete recommendations for scale selection and renovation and outline implications for overlooking measurement issues in the study of prejudice and discrimination.

Counter Class and Counter Identity: Confrontations of Power in Tony Harrison's Poetry

Tony Harrison is a contemporary British author whose poetry is highly influential in encountering the issue of identity and class struggles. As a working-class student, Harrison was subject to prejudice and discrimination for his working-class accent. This paper investigates two of his highly admired poems, “On Not Being Milton” and “Them & uz” from a cultural standpoint, mainly concentrated on John Fiske’s theory of power and language. The role of language in the context of his poems is probed. The multiaccentuality of language is represented in his poetry and these two poems become the site of struggle for the imperialising and the localising power. It is intended to illuminate the sought space of identity which Harrison is constantly referring to as a member of the English working-class society. Lastly, the social and personal relationship between Harrison and Milton has been explored positing Harrison in a transcendental context in his relationship with Milton.

Endorsing Negative Intergroup Attitudes to Justify Failure To Confront Prejudice

While most people believe they would speak up against prejudice, many fail to do so. We identify a harmful consequence of such inaction through examining its impact on bystanders’ own prejudice. Across four studies in two countries (N=1003), using a behavioral paradigm and experimental pretest-posttest design, participants witnessed prejudice and discrimination against an outgroup minority (Jewish/Roma in Hungary, Muslim/Latinx in US). Drawing on self-justification theories, we predicted and found across studies 1-3, that those who had an opportunity but did not confront, endorsed more negative intergroup attitudes following the incident both compared to their own prior attitudes and to control groups, i.e., those who witnessed the same prejudice but had no opportunity to confront, and those who did not to confront different (non-intergroup) prejudice. In study 4, the proposed effect occurred only among those who initially valued confronting. We suggest that failure to speak up amplifies prejudice in society.

On Simulating the Propagation and Countermeasures of Hate Speech in Social Networks

Hate speech expresses prejudice and discrimination based on actual or perceived innate characteristics such as gender, race, religion, ethnicity, colour, national origin, disability or sexual orientation. Research has proven that the amount of hateful messages increases inevitably on online social media. Although hate propagators constitute a tiny minority—with less than 1% participants—they create an unproportionally high amount of hate motivated content. Thus, if not countered properly, hate speech can propagate through the whole society. In this paper we apply agent-based modelling to reproduce how the hate speech phenomenon spreads within social networks. We reuse insights from the research literature to construct and validate a baseline model for the propagation of hate speech. From this, three countermeasures are modelled and simulated to investigate their effectiveness in containing the spread of hatred: Education, deferring hateful content, and cyber activism. Our simulations suggest that: (1) Education consititutes a very successful countermeasure, but it is long term and still cannot eliminate hatred completely; (2) Deferring hateful content has a similar—although lower—positive effect than education, and it has the advantage of being a short-term countermeasure; (3) In our simulations, extreme cyber activism against hatred shows the poorest performance as a countermeasure, since it seems to increase the likelihood of resulting in highly polarised societies.

Disability and Precarious Work

This chapter examines the prevalence, causes, and consequences of precarious work among people with disabilities. New US evidence from the government’s Current Population Survey, and reviews of prior studies, show that workers with disabilities are more likely than those without disabilities to be in precarious jobs. This is explained in part by many people with disabilities choosing precarious jobs due to the flexibility these jobs can provide. Other people with disabilities, however, face prejudice and discrimination in obtaining standard jobs and must resort to taking precarious jobs with less security, lower pay and benefits, little or no training and opportunities for advancement, and few, if any, worker protections. Workers with disabilities tend to have worse outcomes on these measures than workers without disabilities in every type of employment arrangement. The disability pay gap is higher in precarious jobs than in full-time permanent jobs. The mixed evidence suggests that precarious jobs create good employment outcomes for some workers with disabilities but bad outcomes for others. While continued efforts are needed to decrease barriers to traditional employment for people with disabilities, efforts are also needed to bring higher pay and greater legal protections to precarious workers, which would especially benefit workers with disabilities.

Reducing Stigma Toward Schizophrenia: An Investigation into what Information is Most Effective at Decreasing Negative Attitudes to Schizophrenia

<p>Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that manifests psychotic symptoms and largely affects an individual’s day to day functioning (Silva et al., 2017). In addition to the incapacitating symptoms of this disorder, patients with schizophrenia face another central concern: stigma (Stuart, 2016). In light of this, an abundance of previous research has been dedicated to discerning the most effective and feasible methods to reduce stigma towards mental illness (Corrigan, 2001). In particular, a large body of research has suggested that education - or more specifically, educating people about the causes of schizophrenia - may be an effective way to achieve this goal (e.g. Boysen & Vogel, 2008). So far, two causal explanations have dominated the literature; psychosocial causal explanations and biogenetic causal explanations. However, only a small number of experimental studies have directly compared the teaching of these opposing two models on levels of stigma (Lincoln, Arens, Berger, & Rief, 2008; Schlier, Schmick, & Lincoln, 2014; Walker & Read, 2002). The findings from these studies show that the effects of causal explanations on stigma are contradictory, thus highlighting the need for another experiment to discern the actual successfulness of these methods at reducing negative attitudes towards schizophrenia. Additionally, due to the mixed findings in the literature regarding the effectiveness of etiological information at lowering stigma, it seems warranted that further exploration into novel, educational teachings is conducted to establish whether causal information really is the most appropriate educational explanation to enlist if stigma reduction is the end goal. In the current research, two experiments were conducted where participants were provided different explanations for schizophrenia (both causal and non-causal in nature) or no explanation at all. Participants received either a biogenetic causal explanation of schizophrenia, a psychosocial causal explanation of schizophrenia, or a creative explanation for schizophrenia, (Experiment One). Comparatively, in Experiment Two participants were provided either a causal explanation for schizophrenia (biogenetic, psychosocial, epigenetic) or, no information at all. Findings from both experiments suggested there were no significant differences between the levels of prejudice and discrimination of participants who saw information which was causal in nature, and those who did not. Further, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that different causal explanations have varying effects on stigma. Moreover, the previously untested explanations for schizophrenia did not produce stigma reducing effects. Strengths, limitations, implications and future directions are discussed.</p>

Reducing Stigma Toward Schizophrenia: An Investigation into what Information is Most Effective at Decreasing Negative Attitudes to Schizophrenia

<p>Schizophrenia is a chronic mental illness that manifests psychotic symptoms and largely affects an individual’s day to day functioning (Silva et al., 2017). In addition to the incapacitating symptoms of this disorder, patients with schizophrenia face another central concern: stigma (Stuart, 2016). In light of this, an abundance of previous research has been dedicated to discerning the most effective and feasible methods to reduce stigma towards mental illness (Corrigan, 2001). In particular, a large body of research has suggested that education - or more specifically, educating people about the causes of schizophrenia - may be an effective way to achieve this goal (e.g. Boysen & Vogel, 2008). So far, two causal explanations have dominated the literature; psychosocial causal explanations and biogenetic causal explanations. However, only a small number of experimental studies have directly compared the teaching of these opposing two models on levels of stigma (Lincoln, Arens, Berger, & Rief, 2008; Schlier, Schmick, & Lincoln, 2014; Walker & Read, 2002). The findings from these studies show that the effects of causal explanations on stigma are contradictory, thus highlighting the need for another experiment to discern the actual successfulness of these methods at reducing negative attitudes towards schizophrenia. Additionally, due to the mixed findings in the literature regarding the effectiveness of etiological information at lowering stigma, it seems warranted that further exploration into novel, educational teachings is conducted to establish whether causal information really is the most appropriate educational explanation to enlist if stigma reduction is the end goal. In the current research, two experiments were conducted where participants were provided different explanations for schizophrenia (both causal and non-causal in nature) or no explanation at all. Participants received either a biogenetic causal explanation of schizophrenia, a psychosocial causal explanation of schizophrenia, or a creative explanation for schizophrenia, (Experiment One). Comparatively, in Experiment Two participants were provided either a causal explanation for schizophrenia (biogenetic, psychosocial, epigenetic) or, no information at all. Findings from both experiments suggested there were no significant differences between the levels of prejudice and discrimination of participants who saw information which was causal in nature, and those who did not. Further, no evidence was found to support the hypothesis that different causal explanations have varying effects on stigma. Moreover, the previously untested explanations for schizophrenia did not produce stigma reducing effects. Strengths, limitations, implications and future directions are discussed.</p>

Aging, Social Determinants of Health in the Case of Persons With Disabilities and Refugees

Structural and social determinants of health differentially impact on social groups. Among those particularly disadvantaged during the life course are both persons with disabilities and refugees. Because of the way society treats these two populations, both persons with disabilities and refugees may face physical, social, economic and environmental barriers that impede them from benefiting from the same opportunities accessible to other social groups. As a result, these populations have less access to education, higher unemployment, are more likely to be deprived and excluded from social benefits. In other words, public stigma —prejudice and discrimination voiced and practiced by the general population— translates to a life course characterized by daily stressors that result in a higher likelihood of cognitive disorders and dementia. Measuring and analyzing SSDoH inclusive of disability and refugee experiences are essential to efforts aimed at recruitment and retention and knowledge generation in ADRD research.

Social Experiences of Muslim Americans Regarding the Intolerance Displayed by Non-Muslims

Non-Muslims in the United States have openly expressed their opposition regarding Muslim Americans, which has led to the racial profiling and unequal treatment of Muslim Americans. Literature regarding the intolerance displayed by majority members indicates a need for further research that explores the point of view of minorities in the United States. Intolerance is defined as the refusal and unwillingness to respect or tolerate persons of a different social group or members of minority groups who hold beliefs contrary to one’s own. The intolerance displayed among members of different religious and cultural backgrounds can limit the ability to discover new information needed in promoting positive social change among Muslims and non-Muslims in the United States. Semistructured interviews were used to explore the social experiences of Muslim Americans of Palestinian descent in Cleveland, Ohio, regarding prejudice and discrimination displayed by non-Muslims. The theory of planned behavior and impression management theory were used as the framework for this study. Convenience and purposeful sampling were used to recruit the 10 participants chosen for this study. Template analysis, Giorgio’s psychological phenomenological method, and coding were used to analyze the data obtained from this study. Participants revealed experiencing prejudice and discrimination “everywhere” and “anywhere,” including verbal attacks and emotional distress. Participants also described the intolerance among Muslims and non-Muslims as “good and bad” or “it depends.” Information from this study can help in the development of social strategies that can be used to improve the interactions among Muslims and non-Muslims in United States.

Race, ethnicity and a post-racial/ethnic future: A philosophical reflection

Ethnicity and racial identity formation are elements of our social world. In recent years, there has been numerous works on ethnicity and race. Both concepts are controversial in different disciplines. The controversies around these concepts have been heated up by scholars who have devoted their time to the discourse of ethnicity and race, and to understand the ascription of both concepts. Ethnicity and race have been causes of conflict, prejudice and discrimination among various ethnic and racial groups around the world. Thus, this paper is an attempt to discuss and critically reflect about race, ethnicity and a post-racial/ethnic future in line with Emmanuel Chukwudi Eze’s idea of the post-racial future.