Prejudice and relative deprivation: the effects of self-referenced individual relative deprivation on generalized prejudice in European democracies

ABSTRACT

Current literature on the economic determinants of prejudice focuses on how relative deprivation might lead to bias by focusing on group perceptions, with little or no attention given to individual-level deprivation. We address this gap in literature by examining how relative and objective individual-level hardship affects generalised prejudice and suggest that both forms of deprivation lead to increase in a wide variety of out-group biases. We test our hypotheses with data from an original cross-national survey conducted in 2015 in nine European countries (N∼18,000) by applying multilevel models. We include macro-level measures of economic context, including measures of unemployment levels and GDP growth. We make a novel contribution to the growing literature on prejudice in European societies: our results are surprising and suggest that individuals experiencing deteriorating living standards are less likely to express generalised prejudice. We suggest that these findings can be explained using political psychology literature: recent studies suggest that low self-esteem increases altruistic behaviour and reduces the level of out-group bias. These findings open new avenues of research and suggest a new way of theorising the relationship between economic deprivation and prejudice.

KEYWORDS:

• Relative deprivation
• crisis
• generalised prejudice
• LIVEWHAT

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme: project name Living with Hard Times: How European Citizens Deal with Economic Crises and Their Social and Political Consequences (LIVEWHAT) [grant agreement number 613237] coordinated by the University of Geneva (Marco Giugni). The authors are also extremely grateful to all the participants at the LIVEWHAT paper workshop in Warsaw on 19-20 May, 2016 for their feedback and especially to Christian Lahusen and Johannes Kiess for their helpful comments on this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Barbara Yoxon is an Associate Lecturer in Quantitative Methods and Political Science at the University of York. She received her doctorate in political science at the Department of Politics, at the University of Sheffield and has been awarded the BISA Michael Nicholson Prize for the best doctoral thesis in International Studies in 2018. Her main interests include democratisation, political prejudice, nationalism, international conflict, and regime change.

Maria Grasso is a Professor at the University of Sheffield, and European Editor of Mobilization. She is the author of Generations, Political Participation and Social Change in Western Europe (2016) and co-editor of Austerity and Protest: Popular Contention in Times of Economic Crisis (2015). Her work has been published in British Journal of Political Science, European Journal of Political Research, Electoral Studies, and others.

Sotirios Karampampas holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Sheffield. He received his BA in Political Studies and Public Administration from the University of Athens (2008), and his MA in International Politics and Security Studies with Distinction from the University of Bradford (2009). His research interests are in contentious politics, social movements, political violence and radicalisation. His work has recently been published in Acta Politica and Politics and Policy.

Luke Temple is a teaching and research associate at the Department of Politics, University of Sheffield. He received his BA (Hons) in politics and geography and MSc in social and spatial inequalities also at the University of Sheffield. His research interests include democracy, democratisation, and civic participation. He is assistant editor of the British Policy and Politics blog at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He recently co-authored ‘Austerity Measures across Europe’ as part of the report In Defence of Welfare II (Social Policy Association 2015).

ORCID

Barbara Yoxon http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0810-1282

Maria Grasso http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6911-2241

Sotirios Karampampas http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0908-8315

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Commission 7th Framework Programme: project name Living with Hard Times (LIVEWHAT) [grant agreement number 613237] coordinated by the University of Geneva (Professor Marco Giugni).