Master of Science / Department of Psychological Sciences / Donald A. Saucier / In recent American culture, expressions of racial prejudice have become increasingly subtle and ambiguous. Given such ambiguity, whether or not prejudice is perceived by observers may be related to individual differences in the tendency to make attributions to prejudice. The present set of studies test the hypothesis that the beliefs and expectations related to a propensity to make attributions to prejudice are moderated by different information about harm and intent that have been shown in previous research to influence observers’ attributions of prejudice. Study 1 manipulated information about the harm caused by a White actor to a Black target (no harm, ambiguous harm, clear harm). Study 2 manipulated information about a White actor’s intent to racially discriminate against a Black target (no intent, ambiguous intent, clear intent). Across both studies, evidence supported the conclusion that attributions of prejudice are related to observers’ beliefs and expectations about racial prejudice when they are given ambiguous information about harm and intent. Understanding when differences in observers’ propensity to make attributions to prejudice might influence their attributions will contribute to our understanding of when expressions of prejudice are perceived, and more generally about how and when beliefs influence how individuals interpret their social world.

No description available.

Research investigating etiology, or beliefs and values related to prejudice toward transgender individuals, is in the early stages. This study examined correlates and predictors of anti-transgender prejudice from a sample of 298 undergraduates at a large, urban university in the Southeastern United States. Measures of traditional values and beliefs, such as right-wing authoritarianism, and social dominance orientation, as well as social identity factors, such as intergroup contact, intergroup anxiety, in-group identity, and contact apprehension toward transgender individuals were examined. Bivariate correlations revealed that right-wing authoritarianism, contact apprehension, and intergroup anxiety were strongly correlated with anti-transgender prejudice, using the Genderism Transphobia Scale Revised version (GTS-R; Tebbe & Moradi, 2014). Contact with gay men and lesbians yielded a moderate negative correlation with GTS-R. Contact with transgender individuals yielded a small, but significant negative correlation with GTS-R. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that contact apprehension, right-wing authoritarianism, and contact with gay men and lesbians were significant predictors of GTS-R. A post hoc mediation analysis revealed that contact apprehension significantly mediated the relationship between gender and anti-transgender prejudice.

The Romani are a group of individuals that have been acknowledged in newspapers, television, movies and other forms of media but remain invisible as a people world-wide. Through the use of qualitative interviews, content analysis and qualitative synthesis, this study investigates why this phenomenon occurs in the United States as well as Europe. Overall, it was found that media portrayals negatively impact the Romani’s ability to successfully acculturate, increases their experiences of prejudice and discrimination and negatively impacts their social, physical and mental health. Romani media portrayals also appropriate the Romani’s ability to define themselves to mainstream society and impacts their identity development.

The problem of the study was to compare racial prejudice and self-acceptance in Negro and white college students. An attempt was made to determine the degree to which acceptance of self compared with acceptance of people of different races.

As China is undergoing a great social transformation, urbanization has brought millions of domestic migrants into Beijing. After the 2008 Olympics, long term Beijingers have started to express their hostility against the overwhelming population of domestic migrants. This thesis seeks to enlarge our understanding of the nature and dynamics of this local hostility in Beijing, as a case study of the construction of prejudice that results from social change. It is illustrated under a combined framework of Durkheim’s theories of social change and anomie, Allport’s theorizing about prejudice, and Elias’s writings on insiders and outsiders. In order to answer how and why local hostility happened recently in Beijing, I located my ethnographic research on a grassroots organization consisting of long term Beijingers. There are three main findings. First, social change provides the invention of new traditions and norms that long term Beijingers were able to adopt before migrants came and had the chance to get settled. This enabled long term Beijingers to express their hostility by claiming that the migrants were “uncivilized”. Second, urbanization and a series of urban reforms not only brought migrants into the city, but also disturbed the existing lifestyles of the long term Beijingers and made them feel relatively deprived. Nostalgic sentiments aroused among long term Beijingers blamed outsiders for their perceived deprivation. Thirdly, the civic participation that the grassroots organization encouraged did not significantly reduce their prejudice against outsiders. Instead, local hostility was veiled by active participation and was believed to be legitimate because of the support of the local power structure, the mainstream media, and by other government policies.

Atheists are some of the least liked people in the world. Previous research has demonstrated that in most stigmatized groups, increased prevalence of the group increases prejudice towards the group. However, the opposite has been found with atheists- increased perceived prevalence decreases prejudice towards atheists. One post-hoc explanation provided for this difference is that since atheists are easily concealable and unorganized as a group, their greater prevalence may not be perceived as a threat. In the present thesis, I 1) attempted to replicate the existing finding that perceived increased prevalence would increase trust towards atheists and 2) directly tested the hypothesis that if atheist groups are presented as collectively powerful and coherent, increased prevalence will no longer decrease anti-atheist prejudice. I did not find support for the hypothesis that prevalence increases atheist trust, nor did I find support for my hypotheses that power and cohesion would manipulate distrust. Atheist prejudice is still pervasive, however, prejudice against atheists may be changing.

Previous research suggests that women without children are perceived negatively by others and experience adverse outcomes in various settings. This study investigated psychosocial justifications of prejudice toward childfree women. Participants (N = 891) completed measures of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA), the internal (IMS-S) and external (EMS-S) motivations to respond without sexism, and prejudice toward childfree women (i.e., perceived disadvantages of being childfree, evaluations of childfree women, and perceptions of childfree women’s warmth). Most participants also completed one or more justification measures of hostile sexism (HS), benevolent sexism (BS), gender-specific system justification (GSSJ), and femininity ideology. Results indicated that greater RWA was directly associated with greater perceived childfree disadvantages and coldness in childfree women. Additionally, greater IMS-S was directly associated with fewer perceived disadvantages, favorable evaluations, and greater perceived warmth; and greater EMS-S was directly associated with more negative evaluations and perceived coldness. Greater BS and GSSJ were also associated with greater disadvantages. Furthermore, femininity ideology was directly associated with greater disadvantages, unfavorable evaluations, and perceived coldness. In mediational analyses, IMS-S and EMS-S were associated with greater disadvantages, unfavorable evaluations, and perceived coldness indirectly through femininity ideology. EMS-S was also associated with greater disadvantages and unfavorable evaluations indirectly through BS. This study makes a unique contribution to the literature on attitudes toward childfree women by not only replicating that childfree prejudice persists, but also documenting why it potentially exists. Additionally, by identifying several psychosocial constructs that may justify childfree prejudice, this study suggests future research and possible interventions to reduce childfree prejudice.

<h1>Fördomar och diskriminering existerar ännu i dagens samhälle. Rasfördomar förekommer dagligen i olika arbetsmiljöer och även under anställningsprocesser. Denna undersökning syftar till att studera och utforska om namn spelar en avgörande roll vid bedömning av en arbetsansökan. För att besvara syftet med denna undersökning utfördes en undersökning där studenter vid Mälardalens Högskola fick läsa en arbetsannons och en arbetsansökan med olika namn. Därefter fick deltagarna skatta och bedöma de arbetssökande utifrån tolv egenskaper samt finna om de sökande var lämpliga för arbetstjänsten som civilingenjör. Undersökningen påvisade att namn inte har betydelse för hur man bedömer en arbetssökande då det inte fanns en signifkant skillnad mellan namn och hur man bedömde en arbetssökande.</h1>

<p>Two hundred years later it still affects us</p>