Of all the required readings for the course Rejecting Minorities, a short overview is provided. The main points of every article are noted and explained when necessary, using the words of the authors as much as possible. This document does not provide lengthy or detailed explanations of every artic...
OVERVIEW OF ALL ARTICLES
Rejecting Minorities 2020-2021
Content
Of all the required readings, a short overview is provided. The main points of every article are
noted and explained when necessary, using the words of the authors as much as possible. This
document does not provide lengthy or detailed explanations of every article, pre-knowledge of
central concepts is required. However, this overview will certainly come in handy when taking
the online test from home.
, 1 Ellemers & Haslam: introduction to Social Identity Theory (SIT). Conclusion: SIT argues for the
importance of distinguishing between social psychological processes at individual, interpersonal, and
intergroup levels. SIT is about social change, and has an optimistic and progressive point of view.
1 Taylor & Moghaddam: introduction to SIT. SIT attempts to predict the conditions in which people
will feel motivated to maintain or change their group membership and their intergroup situation. The
assumption underlying this is that people want to achieve a positive self-identity. Dissatisfaction
arises from having a negative identity, but will only lead to attempts to change the intergroup
situation when the existing intergroup situation is perceived as unstable. Otherwise, people will try
to make changes on a more personal level. Introduces Tajfel’s Minimal Group Experiment (allocation
of rewards to in-group members). Explains the four central concepts of SIT: social categorization,
social identity, social comparison, and psychological group distinctiveness. Explains the scheme of
SIT. Critically reviews SIT with both attention to positive and negative elements.
2 Blumer: proposes four feelings underlying prejudice: the feeling of superiority, the feeling that the
subordinate group is different and alien, the feeling of proprietary claim to certain areas of privilege
and advantage, and a fear and suspicion that the subordinate group threatens the position of the
dominant group. This last feeling is essential for prejudice to occur. Conclusion: race prejudice should
be studied in the collective process through which a sense of group position is formed.
2 Coser: explains the difference between realistic and non-realistic conflicts. Realistic conflicts arise
when people clash in the pursuit of claims based on frustration of demands and expectancies of gains
and takes place with the frustrating agents themselves in expectation of attaining specific results. It is
seen by participants as a means toward the achievement of realistic ends. Non-realistic conflicts arise
from deprivations and frustrations stemming from the socialization process and consist of a release
of tension in aggressive action directed against shifting objects. Satisfaction is derived from the
aggressive act itself.
2 Wetts & Willer: their argument is that when whites perceive threats to their relative advantage in
the racial status hierarchy, their resentment of minorities increases. They apply this to the opposition
of white Americans to welfare programs. Support for this claim is found in three studies.
3 Allport: Prejudice may be reduced by equal status contact between majority and minority groups in
the pursuit of common goals. The effect is greatly enhanced if contact is sanctioned by institutional
supports, and provided it is of a sort that leads to the perception of common interests and common
humanity between members of the two groups. Four conditions: equal status, common goals, no
intergroup competition, and authority sanction. But: contact cannot always overcome the personal
variable in prejudice. Kinds of contact: casual, acquaintance, residential, occupational, pursuit of
common objectives, goodwill, personality differences.
3 Finseraas & Kotsadam: their article and study explore the causal effect of personal contact with
ethnic minorities on majority members’ views on immigration, immigrants’ work ethic, and support
for lower social assistance benefits to immigrants than to natives. They did a field experiment about
sharing a room with a minority group member in the army. They found support for the contact
hypothesis, but they did not find that contact lead to less support of welfare dualism: sharing a room
with a minority group member did not change views on whether immigrants should have the same
rights to social assistance as natives. But: contact did improve views on the work ethic of immigrants.
3 Pettigrew & Tropp: they have conducted a meta-analysis with 515 studies. Two major findings: 1.
Contact lessens prejudice, and this generalizes to all kinds of groups; 2. Allports’ original conditions
for optimal contact (equal status, common goals, no intergroup competition, and authority sanction)
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