Abstract
Our own prior research has demonstrated that respect for disapproved others predicts and might foster tolerance toward them. This means that without giving up their disapproval of others’ way of life, people can tolerate others when they respect them as equals (outgroup respect–tolerance hypothesis). Still, there was considerable variation in the study features. Moreover, the studies are part of a larger research project that affords many additional tests of our hypothesis. To achieve integration along with a more robust understanding of the relation between respect and tolerance, we (re)analyzed all existing data from this project, and we synthesized the results with the help of meta-analytic techniques. The average standardized regression coefficient, which describes the relationship between respect and tolerance, was 0.25 (95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.16, 0.34]). In addition to this overall confirmation of our hypothesis, the size of this coefficient varied with a number of variables. It was larger for numerical majorities than for minorities, smaller for high-status than for low-status groups, and larger for religious than for life-style groups. These findings should inspire further theory development and spur growth in the social-psychological literature on tolerance.
Highlights
As reflected in many political and societal debates, managing diversity has become increasingly challenging for pluralistic societies
To evaluate our main research question, which asked whether respect would predict tolerance on average, we applied the random-effects model as described above
The pooled standardized regression coefficient was 0.25 (p < .001), and its 95% confidence interval ranged from 0.16 to 0.34, thereby clearly supporting the outgroup respect–tolerance hypothesis that people’s respect influences their tolerance
Summary
As reflected in many political and societal debates, managing diversity has become increasingly challenging for pluralistic societies. In recent years, social psychologists have adopted ideas from philosophy (e.g., from Scanlon, 2003; see Forst, 2013) that have gradually shifted their understanding toward a theoretically more sophisticated view of tolerance as the attitude that one accepts the different ways of life practiced by outgroups (i.e., their beliefs, preferences, and practices) despite one’s disapproval of them. According to this emerging view, disapproval of others (i.e., of their ways of life) is a definitional condition for tolerance. Notice that unlike alternative conceptions (e.g., Huo & Molina, 2006), according to the definition employed by us here, respecting others as equals is not at odds with disapproving of them (see Crane, 2017; Scanlon, 2003; see Simon, Eschert, et al, 2019; Verkuyten et al, 2019); that is, one can respect others as equal citizens, while disapproving of their ways of life
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