Unpacking negative attitudes towards Moroccans: The interactive effect of ethnicity and gender on perceived morality

The central role of social exclusion when representing ethnic minorities and its association with intergroup attitudes

A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze the social representations of four ethnic minorities in southern Spain. Following a between-subjects design, Spanish participants (n = 532) were assigned to evaluate either Romanian Roma, Spanish Roma, Moroccan, or Romanian non-Roma people, with a free-association task and scales of stereotypes, emotions, and behavioral tendencies. Results showed that Romanian Roma was the most devalued target, eliciting the worst representation and attitudes. The content analysis revealed that participants described minorities mainly in terms of social exclusion, culture, appearance, personality, opportunity seeking, stigmatization, and personalization/equality, with social exclusion being a key category associated with worst attitudes.

The values we share: A multi-method approach to understanding how perceived outgroup values are related to attitudes towards immigrants

Cultural understanding entails a recognition of outgroup values. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods, we analysed the perception of Spaniards of the core values of Moroccan immigrants across two online surveys, 139 interviews and an experimental study. In Study 1, participants spontaneously generated the values considered fundamental for Moroccans, rated such values on a continuum of negativity-positivity and reported their attitudes towards Moroccans. In Study 2, participants were asked about the values that Spaniards and Moroccans (do not) share. In Study 3, participants were interviewed about the core values for Moroccans and those shared with Spaniards. Study 4 experimentally manipulated the salience of value-sharing. An inductive analysis revealed that the perceived core values for Moroccans were related to family/community, material issues, religion and integrity. Study 2 showed that religion, gender-universalism and culture/tradition were perceived as different values, whereas integrity, social-interaction and family/community values were perceived as shared. Study 4 confirmed that making salient the common importance of family for Spaniards and Moroccans indirectly increased the perceived morality of Moroccan immigrants via perceived shared values. Implications for the way lay people think about the values of outgroups are discussed.

To be or not to be egalitarian, that is the question: Understanding the complexity of ethnic prejudice in the workplace

The expression of prejudice has mutated over the last century, and most Western countries now legally support equality. However, for ethnic minorities, work discrimination is one of the most evident challenges they have to face. Three preregistered experiments, with an overall sample of 1,507 participants, analyzed the effect of a job applicant’s ethnicity and other characteristics (e.g., gender, attractiveness), which were manipulated with a CV, as well as possible moderator variables (tolerance and racism), on participants’ judgments about the candidate: stereotypes (competence, sociability, morality, and immorality); emotions (admiration, contempt, compassion, and envy); and active and passive facilitation tendencies at work. The results indicated that tolerance and racism modulated the effect of ethnicity on the dependent variables in an administrative occupation (Studies 1 and 2) and in the hostelry industry (Study 3). A pooled analysis revealed that egalitarian participants (high tolerance or low racism) reported an unexpected positive bias toward a Moroccan candidate compared to a Spanish candidate. Non-egalitarian participants (low tolerance or high racism) showed the expected ingroup bias only for (im)morality: they perceived Moroccan applicants as less moral and more immoral than Spanish candidates. Studies 2 and 3 confirmed that the Moroccan candidate was perceived as less prototypical of his/her category than the Spanish applicant was. We discussed the primacy of (im)morality in social perception as well as the relevance of distinguishing between egalitarian and non-egalitarian people when trying to understand the complexity of new expressions of prejudice and to identify strategies to avoid discrimination in the workplace.