Two studies investigate the association between ethnic identity and perceptions of prejudice. Study 1 examined the relationship between ethnic identity and the personal-group discrimination discrepancy (PGD) among ethnic minority and White respondents. High-identified minorities reported increased personal vulnerability to discrimination and less PGD, whereas less-identified minorities conformed more to the PGD phenomenon. Whites also reported more personal than group discrimination, but ethnic identity did not moderate this effect. Study 2 examined minorities’ perceptions of prejudice in an interaction with a White confederate, who displayed either obvious or subtle prejudice. High-identified minorities showed stronger reactions to subtle prejudice than did low-identified minorities, who tended to overlook subtle prejudice. The authors relate findings to principles from stigma research, social identity, and self-categorization theory and suggest that ethnic identity can explain why some minorities perceive prejudice when others do not.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Branscombe, N. R. , Schmitt, M. T., & Harvey, R. D. (in press). Perceiving pervasive discrimination among African Americans: Implications for group identification and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.
2.
Bruner, J. (1957). On perceptual readiness. Psychological Review, 64, 123-152.
3.
Clark, K. B. (1955). Prejudice and your child. Boston: Beacon Press.
4.
Cose, E. (1993). Rage of a privileged class. New York: HarperCollins.
5.
Crocker, J. , Luhtanen, R., Blaine, B., & Broadnax, S. (1994). Collective self-esteem and psychological well-being among White, Black, and Asian college students. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 503-513.
6.
Crocker, J. , Major, B., & Steele, C. (1998). Social stigma. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 504-553). New York: McGraw-Hill.
7.
Crocker, J. , Voelkl, K., Testa, M., & Major, B. (1991). Social stigma: The affective consequences of attributional ambiguity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 218-228.
8.
Crosby, F. (1982). The denial of personal discrimination. American Behavioral Scientist, 27, 371-386.
9.
Cross, W. E. (1991) Shades of black: Diversity in African-American identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
10.
Dion, K. L. , & Earn, B. M. (1975). The phenomenology of being a target of prejudice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 944-950.
11.
Dovidio, J. F. , & Gaertner, S. L. (Eds.). (1986). Prejudice, discrimination, and racism: Theory and research. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.
12.
Fiske, S. T. (1998). Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. In D. T. Gilbert, S. T. Fiske, & G. Lindzey (Eds.), The handbook of social psychology (4th ed., pp. 357-414). New York: McGraw-Hill.
13.
Grieve, P. G. , & Hogg, M. A. (1999). Subjective uncertainty and intergroup discrimination in the minimal group situation. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 926-940.
14.
Gurin, P. , & Townsend, A. (1986). Properties of gender identity and their implications for gender consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 25, 139-148.
15.
Helms, J. E. (1990). Black and white racial identity: Theory, research, and practice. Westport, CT: Greenwood.
16.
Helms, J. E. (1992). A race is a nice thing to have: A guide to being a White person or understanding the White persons in your life. Topeka, KS: Content Communications.
17.
Horowitz, R. (1939). Racial aspects of self-identification in nursery school children. Journal of Psychology, 7, 91-99.
18.
Kardiner, A. , & Ovesey, L. (1951). The mark of oppression: A psychosocial study of the American Negro. New York: Norton.
19.
Luhtanen, R. , & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one’s social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318.
20.
Major, B. , & Crocker, J. (1993). Social stigma: The affective consequences of attributional ambiguity. In D. M. Mackie & D. L. Hamilton (Eds.), Affect, cognition, and stereotyping: Interactive processes in intergroup perception (pp. 345-370). New York: Academic Press.
21.
Moghaddam, F. M. , Stalkin, A. J., & Hutcheson, L. S. (1997). A generalized personal/group discrepancy: Testing the domain specificity of a perceived higher effect of events on one’s group than on oneself. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 743-750.
22.
Mullin, B. A. , & Hogg, M. A. (1998). Dimensions of subjective uncertainty in social identification and minimal intergroup discrimination. British Journal of Social Psychology, 37, 345-365.
23.
Phinney, J. S. , Cantu, C. L., & Kurtz, D. A. (1997). Ethnic and American identity as predictors of self-esteem among African American, Latino, and White adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 26, 165-185.
24.
Pinel, E. C. (1999). Stigma consciousness: The psychological legacy of social stereotypes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 114-128.
25.
Postmes, T. , Branscombe, N. R., Spears, R., & Young, H. (1999). Comparative processes in personal and group judgments: Resolving the discrepancy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 320-338.
26.
Ruggiero, K. M. , & Major, B. N. (1998). Group status and attributions to discrimination: Are low-or high-status group members more likely to blame their failure on discrimination?Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 24, 821-837.
27.
Ruggiero, K. M. , & Taylor, D. M. (1995). Coping with discrimination: How disadvantaged group members perceive the discrimination that confronts them. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 826-838.
28.
Ruggiero, K. M. , & Taylor, D. M. (1997). Why minority group members perceive or do not perceive the discrimination that confronts them: The role of self-esteem and perceived control. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 373-389.
29.
Ruggiero, K. M. , Taylor, D. M., & Lydon, J. E. (1997). How disadvantaged group members cope with discrimination when they perceive that social support is available. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 27, 1581-1600.
30.
Sellers, R. M. , Rowley, S. A. J., Chavous, T. M., Shelton, J. N., & Smith, M. A. (1997). Multidimensional inventory of Black identity: A preliminary investigation of reliability and construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73, 805-815.
31.
Smith, E. R. , Coats, S., & Walling, D. (1999). Overlapping mental representations of self, in-group, and partner: Further response time evidence and a connectionist model. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 873-882.
32.
Smith, E. R. , & Henry, S. (1996). An in-group becomes part of the self: Response time evidence. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 22, 635-642.
33.
Swim, J. K. , & Stangor, C. (Eds.). (1998). Prejudice: The target’s perspective. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
34.
Tajfel, H. , & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 7-24). Chicago: Nelson-Hall.
35.
Taylor, D. M. , Wright, S. C., & Porter, L. E. (1994). Dimensions of perceived discrimination: The personal/group discrimination discrepancy. In M. P. Zanna & J. M. Olson (Eds.), The psychology of prejudice: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 7, pp. 233-255). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
36.
Terkel, S. (1992). Race: How Blacks and Whites think and feel about the American obsession. New York: New Press.
37.
Turner, J. C. , Hogg, M. A., Oakes, P. J., Reicher, S. D., & Wetherell, M. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Basil Blackwell.
38.
Verkuyten, M. , Drabbles, M., & van den Nieuwenhuijzen, K. (1999). Self-categorization and emotional reactions to ethnic minorities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 605-619.
39.
Word, C. O. , Zanna, M. P., & Cooper, J. (1974). The nonverbal mediation of self-fulfilling prophecies in interracial interaction. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 18, 141-147.
