The last acceptable prejudice in Europe?

Kende, Anna and Hadarics, Márton and Bigazzi, Sára and Boza, Mihaela and Kunst, Jonas R and Lantos, Nóra Anna (2020) The last acceptable prejudice in Europe? GROUP PROCESSES & INTERGROUP RELATIONS. ISSN 1368-4302 (print); 1461-7188 (online)

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Abstract

National and European policies aim to facilitate the integration of Roma people into mainstream society. Yet, Europe's largest ethnic group continues to be severely discriminated. Although prejudice has been identified to be at the core of this failure, social psychological research on anti-Gypsyism remains scarce. We conducted a study in six countries using student and community samples (N = 2,089; Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Norway, Italy, Spain) to understand how anti-Gypsyism among majority-group members predicts unfavorable acculturation preferences toward Roma people. Openly negative stereotypes predicted acculturation preferences strongly across the countries. However, stereotypes about the Roma receiving undeserved benefits were also relevant to some degree in East-Central Europe, implying that intergroup relations are framed there as realistic conflict. Stereotypes about traditional Roma culture did not play a central role in acculturation preferences. Our findings highlighted that anti-Gypsyism may be an impediment to integration efforts, and efforts should be context-specific rather than pan-national.

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