Abstract
Ethnic prejudice can lead to exclusion and hinder social integration. Prejudices are formed throughout socialization, and social norms inform individuals about the acceptability of prejudice against certain outgroups. Adolescence is a crucial period for the development of intergroup attitudes, and young people are especially prone to follow the norms they perceive in their reference groups. At the same time, the effect of perceived norms on prejudice in school classes has been rarely studied. In Hungary, where prejudice against the Roma is widespread and there is no clear social norm proscribing prejudiced manifestations, this topic is especially relevant. In the present paper, based on multi-level analyses of panel data from Hungarian ninth-graders, we find that adolescents adjust their attitudes to those they perceive to be dominant among their classmates and that classmates serve as more important reference groups than teachers do. More contact with Roma is found to be associated with less prejudice against them. Looking at school classes, we find that at the beginning of the school year, many students underestimate the rejection of prejudiced expressions in their classes. By the end of the year, many students are found to adjust their own attitudes to the falsely perceived class norm. Based on our findings, we argue that school classes should be treated as important normative contexts for the socialization of intergroup attitudes and should receive special attention from both scholars and practitioners working in the fields of prejudice research and reduction. Furthermore, we suggest that teachers can most successfully hinder prejudices by working on a common, visible, shared class norm rather than “teaching” students that prejudices are not acceptable.
Highlights
Furthermore, we found that an increase in the number of contacts with Roma is coupled with a decrease in prejudice against them and that while close, direct contact with Roma has the strongest effect, even indirect contact was found to be coupled with significantly less prejudice against Roma people
At the same time, our findings suggest that school classes as normative contexts played a more important role for
This finding has clear implications for the practical work of prejudice reduction
Summary
The first aim of the present study was to investigate individuallevel correlates of anti-Roma prejudice and the change thereof during the first year of secondary school among Hungarian teenagers. At the level of school classes, we aimed to investigate the relationship between the perceived class norm related to the acceptance of anti-Roma remarks at the beginning of the year and the actual acceptance of such remarks at the end of the year. We aimed to account for the effect of each factor affecting antiRoma prejudice simultaneously; we used multiple linear. Change in Anti-Roma Prejudice Between the Two Waves In the step of our analysis, we aimed to grasp change in students’ anti-Roma prejudice. We aimed to recreate the context of school classes in which attitudes are formed and found that attitudes were adjusted to the perceived norms, most importantly to those of the classmates
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
