Towards a Better Understanding of Inter-Minority Attitudes

Although intergroup attitudes are among the most pervasively studied topics in social psychological literature, empirical attention for inter-minority attitudes has hitherto remained rather scant. To address this notable lacuna, the central goal of the present proposal is to expand the underdeveloped inter-minority attitudes literature in three ways. Firstly, we aim to improve the conceptualization of inter-minority attitudes held by ethnic-cultural minorities. To this end, I advance a novel typology which positions emerging attitude profiles along two key dimensions, i.e., separation-assimilation and derogation-coalition. My pilot work shows that this approach (a) results in a theoretically meaningful classification of inter-minority attitude profiles, and (b) allows to make straightforward empirical predictions about the correlates and determinants of inter-minority attitudes. Secondly, this research aims to identify the “majority influence,” by examining how majority group ideological climates are related to inter-minority attitudes. Thirdly, I intend to study if and how secondary transfer effects of inter-minority contact can ameliorate inter-minority attitudes. Taken together, the present proposal should advance our understanding of how inter-minority attitudes manifest, develop, thrive, and can further be promoted in modern “super-diverse” societies.

Keywords:intergroup attitudes and relations, ideological climates, secondary transfer effects of contact

Disciplines:Cognitive processes, Group and interpersonal processes, Social behaviour and social action, Social perception and cognition, Statistics and data analysis