Psychological processes underlying microaggressive communications by majority members against black people in Ireland

• Autor(a) principal: Holdensen, Sine Bering
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/22988
• topic: Racial microaggressions; Social norms; Subtle racial prejudice; Belief in a just world; Ireland; Microagressões raciais; Norma social; Preconceito racial sutil; Crença em um mundo justo; Irlanda

Recently, research on racial microaggressions as a form of subtle racial discrimination has received increasing attention. However, the perspective of the deliverer and the psychological antecedents of racial microaggressions remain understudied. The present study investigated the psychological processes that predict the likelihood to communicate racial microaggressions among adult Irish ethnic majority members (N = 254). Considering previous research on predictors of subtle prejudice and microaggressive communication, it was hypothesized that intrinsic and extrinsic anti-prejudice norms would predict racial microaggressive communications with subtle forms of racial prejudice mediating this relationship. Based on the tenets of the justification-suppression model of the expression of prejudice, it was also expected that belief in a just world would exacerbate the relationship between subtle racial prejudice and microaggressive likelihood. As expected, intrinsic norms negatively predicted microaggressive communications while extrinsic norms predicted them positively. The mediating role of subtle racial prejudice was partially supported: a) modern racism mediated the link be tween intrinsic norms and microaggressive likelihood, while b) aversive racism mediated the link be tween extrinsic norms and microaggressive likelihood. The latter suggests that anti-prejudice norms in society may lead to increased intergroup anxiety which, in turn, may increase the likelihood to communicate racial microaggressions. Belief in a just world was not a significant moderator in any of the hypothesized associations. The results and their implications are discussed. Suggestions for future research include an encouragement to incorporate both deliverer and receiver perspectives in studies on racial microaggressions in order to understand their underlying psychological processes.