Taking Stock of Solidarity between People of Color: A Mini Meta-Analysis of Five Experiments

Abstract

Recent work suggests that solidarity between people of color (PoC) is triggered when a minoritized ingroup believes they are discriminated similarly to another outgroup based on their alleged foreignness or inferiority. Heightened solidarity then boosts support for policies that benefit minoritized outgroups who are not one’s own. Available experiments on this pathway vary by participants (e.g., Asian, Black, Middle Eastern, and Latino adults), manipulations (similar discrimination as foreign vs. inferior), and pro-outgroup outcomes (support for undocumented immigrants, Black Lives Matter). We report a pre-registered mini meta-analysis of this solidarity mechanism. Across five experiments (N = 3,252), similar discrimination as foreign or inferior reliably triggers solidarity between PoC, which then substantially increases support for pro-outgroup policies. This mediated pathway is robust to possible confounding and emerges across studies and planned contrasts of them. We discuss what the viability of this mechanism implies for further theoretic and empirical innovations in a racially diversifying polity.

The shadow of fear: hate crime victimization and stress after Charlottesville

“…Why did other racial groups not experience any significant increase in hate-crime related stress after the events in Charlottesville? We expected that Asian-Americans and Hispanics might also have felt threatened by the rally, given that attacks on one minority group has been linked to creating interminority solidarity (Pérez et al, 2023 ) and that white supremacists, who primarily targeted African-Americans, would also be seen as prejudiced against other minority groups as well (Chaney and Forbes, 2023 ). While the Unite the Right rally expressed hatred of a variety of minority racial, ethnic, and religious groups, anti-Black rhetoric was especially prevalent, including prominently displayed symbols of the Ku Klux Klan and the Confederacy.…”

“…It is however not yet clear whether members of other groups perceive this “spillover,” i.e., whether they feel that they are at a higher risk of victimization due to the trigger event despite not belonging to the primary target group. However, an attack on another minority community might create conditions that have been associated with interethnic solidarity by strengthening a sense of exclusion from the majority (Pérez et al, 2023 ). Furthermore, other research shows that people tend to believe that prejudice against one group is correlated with prejudice against other groups, in what has been termed the “lay theory of generalized prejudice” (Chaney and Forbes, 2023 ).…”