Social norms in an intergroup context: the mediating role of the social norms in the contact-prejudice link. The majority and minority view
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| Year of publication | 2023 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Description | The intergroup relationship between the Roma and majority is tensed across Europe for a long time. Roma people are the most stigmatized and discriminated minority in Europe. Roma people are discriminated at all levels (education, work, housing, etc.) Improving intergroup relations between the Roma and members of the majority (i.e. non-Roma) is thus one of the most pressing issues of social psychological research. Intergroup contact theory is one of the most effective strategies for improving intergroup relations. However, current research has some limitations such as the fact, that most researchers focus primarily on the perspective of the majority, while the perspective of minorities (e.g., the Roma) is largely missing. Due to the persisting segregations of Roma, and thus lack of opportunities for direct intergroup contact between the Roma and majority, using direct intergroup contact as an intervention for improving intergroup relations of this groups is difficult. In this research, we studied the effect of indirect forms of intergroup contact, particularly extended contact (i.e., experiences with outgroup members shared by fellow ingroup members such as friends or family) from both perspectives (Roma, non-Roma). Extended contact functions as a descriptive social norm that informs about the actual amount of contact in one’s environment. In a group of Czech Roma (N = 226), the ingroup descriptive social 47 norm was associated with ingroup injunctive social norm (e.g. the perceived support of intergroup contact with non-Roma by ingroup members) and lower amount of prejudice toward the non-Roma. On the other hand in the majority sample (N = 750) we found out that both ingroup and outgroup descriptive social norms were related with lower amount of majority prejudice towards Roma via mediating role of the ingroup injunctive norms (e.g. the perceived support of intergroup contact with Roma by ingroup members). We discuss the findings with respect to possibilities to improve the relations between Roma and majority across Europe. |
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