Behavioural challenges of minorities: Social identity and role models

Artikel

We present a lab-in-the-field experiment and surveys of marginalised Roma children in Slovakia to examine whether reminding Roma of their ethnicity reduces their performance in a cognitive task. Research on social identity and stereotypes has documented that when individuals feel that their social group is negatively stereotyped in a domain, their performance declines, which can reinforce discrimination. In an effort to break the cycle of negative stereotypes, we remind Roma subjects of either Roma or non-Roma role models. We find that the activation of a Roma’s ethnicity reduces cognitive performance. In contrast, Roma exposed to Roma role models outperform those reminded of their ethnicity and of non-Roma role models. We then attempt to understand the channels through which social identity and role models affect performance. We show that priming the identity of a Roma has a direct effect on confidence, decreasing performance.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Journal: PLoS ONE ; ISSN: 1932-6203 ; Volume: 14 ; Year: 2019 ; Issue: 7 ; San Francisco: Public Library of Science

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Field Experiments ; Economics of Minorities, Races, Indigenous Peoples, and Immigrants; Non-labor Discrimination
• Subject: Social Identity ; artefactual field experiments ; discrimination ; role models ; Roma

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Vecci, Joseph ; Zelinsky, Tomas
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Public Library of Science
• (where): San Francisco
• (when): 2019

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0220010
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/236616
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET