Predictors of “the last acceptable racism”: Group threats and public attitudes toward Gypsies and Travellers

Abstract

Prejudice against Gypsies/Travellers is prevalent in the United Kingdom and elsewhere but there is a lack of research investigating the underlying factors. The present research examined the relationships between different types of intergroup threats and their antecedents and U.K. residents' attitudes toward Gypsies/Travellers. Regression analyses confirmed that negative stereotypes, symbolic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted attitudes, whereas multicultural ideology endorsement, ingroup identification, realistic threats, and intergroup anxiety predicted support for Gypsy/Traveller group rights. Moreover, multicultural ideology endorsement predicted support for group rights indirectly through realistic threats, whereas negative stereotypes predicted attitudes indirectly through symbolic threats and intergroup anxiety and predicted support for group rights indirectly through realistic threats and intergroup anxiety. Discussion focuses on the implications for strategies aimed at reducing what is often defined as “the last acceptable racism.”

Identifying intergroup threats in the attitudes of young Slovaks toward ethnic minorities

“…Dimitrova et al (2015) confirmed that the perceived economic, symbolic, and safety threat posed by the Roma was closely related to the level of prejudice of Romanian and Bulgarian youth to them. Other studies also supported evidence that negative emotions and negative attitudes towards Roma people are closely related to the realistic and symbolic threat (e. g. Hutchison et al, 2018;Ljujic et al, 2012).…”

Classical and Modern Prejudice toward Asylum Seekers: The Mediating Role of Intergroup Anxiety in a Sample of Italians

“…Thus, an increase in intergroup anxiety can lead people to express prejudice toward outgroup members. Intergroup anxiety has been shown in previous studies to affect negative outgroup attitudes (Brylka et al 2015;Montgomery and Zhang 2018;Voci and Hewstone 2003) as well as unfavourable prosocial support intentions (Hutchison et al 2018). While results from prior studies, also conducted in the Italian context, have confirmed the meditating role of intergroup anxiety (Brown and Hewstone 2005;Pettigrew and Tropp 2008;Voci and Hewstone 2003), this issue needs further investigation, in particular when different type of predictors as well as different intergroup perceptions are considered (Visintin et al 2017).…”

“…Ingroup identification serves as a basis for categorizing other people into ingroups and outgroups (Stephan 2014). People who feel strongly identified with their ingroup are more likely to be more concerned with protecting ingroup interests and preserving social norms, values, and customs than are low identifiers (Hutchison et al 2018). Previous studies have found that ingroup national identity is positively correlated with intergroup anxiety because ingroup members are worried about losing their distinctiveness through interaction with outgroup members (González et al 2010;Paolini et al 2018).…”

Motivational Orientations and Organizational Citizenship Behaviors: The Moderator Role of Perceived Discrimination in the Brexit Context

“…Spaniards who emigrated to the United Kingdom may have conflicts when perceiving their ingroup as stigmatized, and this perception can affect their performance. Therefore, these prejudices took place whether the threats were factual or symbolic, in line with intergroup threat theory [19]. Nationality is a stable characteristic; it is assumed that the perception of discrimination due to this factor will impact on how one relates to the organization and how one behaves, affecting OCB.…”