Emotional Prejudice-Types

• In Event: 2183 - Section on Race, Gender, and Class Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 06. Race and Emotions

Abstract

This article argues for conceptualizing prejudice in terms of emotional-types rather than a monolithic feeling of ‘antipathy’ as in paradigmatic work on the subject (Allport 1954). Based on research in social psychology regarding stereotype content (Fiske 2012) and group-level emotions (Mackie and Smith 2003), I propose two distinct emotional-types of prejudice-- fear-prejudice and hostility-prejudice -- and demonstrate how relative group and subgroup positions may predict each. I support this distinction empirically using survey data from approximately 10,000 individuals in the Russian Federation collected in 2003-2004. Results indicate that non-significant predictors of a monolithic conception of prejudice are in fact quite important for predicting emotional types of prejudice. Along these lines, I argue that within the dominant ethnic category “Russian” relative sub-group positions may affect the emotional-type of prejudice expressed toward outgroups. This builds on Fiske’s work, but instead of noting the nature of the outgroup stereotype, I focus on the prejudice-type expressed toward different outgroups, keeping the individual’s intersectional position in mind. I find that individuals within the dominant ethnic group (non-Muslim, ethnic Russians) who possess arguably less social power (women, the youngest generation, and those with very low income) are more likely to express fear-prejudice; those with broader anti-racist socialization (the elderly and those with higher education) are more likely to express tolerance, and those with greatest social power (men, those with high incomes) are more likely to express hostility-prejudice. I conclude by suggesting ways prejudice-types may contribute to and beyond the study of ethnic and religious prejudice.

Author

• Nicole M. Butkovich Kraus, Rutgers University