When Prosperity Breeds Intergroup Hostility: The Effects of Relative Deprivation and Relative Gratification on Prejudice

Abstract

In previous theory and research dealing with relative deprivation (RD), the role of relative gratification (RG), the opposite of RD, was relatively overlooked. Two experiments (N = 245) tested the impact of both RD and RG on prejudice toward socially significant outgroups. Experiment 1 manipulated temporal RD and RG by confronting participants to declining (RD) or improving (RG) job opportunities and found no effect of RD on prejudice but reliable effects of RG. Experiment 2 manipulated group RD and RG and found increased levels of generalized prejudice in both conditions while participants in the group RG condition showed, in addition, increased ingroup bias, greater willingness to support and act in favor of restrictive immigration policies, and higher social dominance orientation than the control group. These findings confirm the role of group RD and establish RG as an equally important, if not more central, variable in the psychology of intergroup relations.