Abstract
We present a lab-in-the-field experiment and surveys of marginalised Roma children in Slovakia to examine whether reminding Roma of their ethnicity reduces their performance in a cognitive task. Research on social identity and stereotypes has documented that when individuals feel that their social group is negatively stereotyped in a domain, their performance declines, which can reinforce discrimination. In an effort to break the cycle of negative stereotypes, we remind Roma subjects of either Roma or non-Roma role models. We find that the activation of a Roma’s ethnicity reduces cognitive performance. In contrast, Roma exposed to Roma role models outperform those reminded of their ethnicity and of non-Roma role models. We then attempt to understand the channels through which social identity and role models affect performance. We show that priming the identity of a Roma has a direct effect on confidence, decreasing performance.
Highlights
Social identity commonly refers to an individual’s own perception of self, based on his or her membership in a group such as ethnicity, race, or gender [1]
We examine the effect of role models on social identity and, in particular, on social group stereotypes of Roma children
We study Roma, as they are the largest minority in Europe and, according to the European Committee of Social Rights [75], they suffer from pervasive historic discrimination, which has further risen during the economic crisis
Summary
Social identity commonly refers to an individual’s own perception of self, based on his or her membership in a group such as ethnicity, race, or gender [1]. A person’s social identity provides a set of rules that govern group behaviour, as such social identity can help to explain behavioural differences across groups [2,3,4,5,6,7]. A negative stereotype can generate negative perceptions about one’s self, leading people to perform worse than their abilities would suggest. This is commonly known as stereotype threat [10]
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