Collective Action 2

Question 1

Barriers to perceiving injustice:

Answer 1

• Discourse/policies that legitimise inequalities or disadvantage in society constitute a barrier to experiencing perceived injustice
  
  • Social creativity (Becker, 2012)
  • Benevolent prejudice (Becker & Wright, 2013)
  • Stigmatization (Gorska et al., 2017)

Question 2

Becker (2012):

Answer 2

Objective - examine if “social creativity” can undermine collective action.

Question 3

Social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner, 1979):

Answer 3

· People are motivated to feel good/positive about themselves.
· A group member who identifies strongly with the ingroup should be motivated to positively distinguish the ingroup from outgroups on dimensions valued by the perceiver (Tajfel, 1978c).

Question 4

Social identity theory:

Answer 4

· But groups vary in their social status/power/prestige - some have high status/power/prestige while others have low status/power/prestige…
· How do disadvantaged group members (lower power or low status, socially devalued group) acquire a positive social identity?
· Various identity management strategies are available.
- Individual mobility
- Social creativity
- Social competition (collective action)

Question 5

Identity management strategies - individual mobility:

Answer 5

· group members can escape, avoid or deny belonging to a disadvantaged (devalued) group and seek to become or pass as members of the advantaged group
- The individual self is different from other group members
- Individual mobility only addresses the status of the individual but does not change the social status of the whole ingroup

Question 6

Identity management strategies - social creativity:

Answer 6

group members redefine the intergroup comparison by representing the ingroup in positive rather than negative ways.

Question 7

Social creativity:

Answer 7

1. Compensating bias:
   
   • Compare ingroup on a dimension on which the ingroup is superior (e.g., morality to compensate for wealth)
     2. Engage in a downward comparison:
   • Compare ingroup with a lower status (instead of a higher status) outgroup
     3. Re-evaluate the value or attribute of the comparison dimension:
     - Downplay, or reject, the importance of the negative attribute your ingroup is compared on

Question 8

Social creativity 2:

Answer 8

Social creativity may benefit psychological wellbeing but it does not improve the position of the ingroup as a whole within the existing system. No structural change in conditions of the ingroup!

Question 9

Identity management strategies - social competition:

Answer 9

• group members engage in conflict designed to change the status quo through collective effort (e.g. collective action).
• Unlike individual mobility and social creativity, social competition aims to improve the outcomes of the entire group by changing the conditions of the group.

Question 10

Becker (2012) study 1a:

Answer 10

• Compensation bias in the context of economic inequality
  
  • N = 63 (community sample in Germany of mixed-gender, identified as middle-class on average)
  • Sample approached by students in public places
  • Context: Read a text about an increase in social inequality in Germany and upcoming cuts in the social and health system that would affect the middle class but not the wealthy upper class.
  • Two conditions (random assignment):
  • Experimental condition: participants compare people like them to the richest 10% of the population on the attribute of warmth.
  • Empty control

Question 11

Becker (2012) study 1a 2:

Answer 11

· DV= collective action tendencies against social cuts (likelihood of participating in a demonstration, attending a discussion meeting, attending a rally, distributing flyers, and signing a petition).
· Participants (mostly middle-class) showed less interest in collective action for more social justice after comparing their group with the richest 10% of the population on warmth (compared to control)!

Question 12

Becker (2012) study 1b:

Answer 12

· Compensation bias in the context of gender inequality
- N = 58 women (community sample in Germany) (majority were employed)
- Sample approached by students in public places
- Context: Read a text that there have been “big changes in terms of gender equality during the last decades. Although women have been quite successful, there are distinct areas in which they are still disadvantaged. For instance, women only receive 78% of the salary men earn and have poorer chances of promotion in terms of positions that are linked to power (leadership positions, parliaments).”
· Two conditions (random assignment):
- Experimental condition: participants compare women to men on the attribute of warmth (e.g. warm, unselfish)
- Empty control

Question 13

Becker (2012) study 1b 2:

Answer 13

· DV= collective action tendencies to protest against women’s disadvantages (likelihood of participating in a demonstration, attending a discussion meeting, attending a rally, distributing flyers, and signing a petition).
· Women showed less interest in collective action against gender inequality after comparing women to men on warmth (compared with control)!

Question 14

Becker (2012) study 1c:

Answer 14

· Downward comparison in the context of economic inequality
- N = 74 unemployed persons of mixed gender (community sample in Germany)
- Sample approached at the local job center
- Three conditions (random assignment)
- downward comparison
- upward comparison
- Control

Question 15

Becker (2012) study 1c 2:

Answer 15

· Downward comparison condition:
- “compared with the unemployed in the United States, the unemployed in Germany are better off. Germans get the double amount of financial support, and the health care system is much better for the unemployed in Germany.”
· Upward comparison condition:
- “compared with the unemployed in Scandinavia, the unemployed in Germany are worse off. Scandinavians get the double amount of financial support, and the health care system is much better for the unemployed in Scandinavia” .
· Empty control condition
· DV = likelihood of engaging in collective action to protest the situation of unemployed Germans.

Question 16

Becker (2012) study 1c 3:

Answer 16

· Unemployed in downward comparison were less interested in collective action against unemployment compared to control.
· Unemployed in upward comparison condition were more interested in collective action against unemployment compared to control.

Question 17

Becker (2012) study 1d:

Answer 17

· Downward comparison in the context of gender inequality
- N = 126 women (study among online users in Germany), half were employed
- Three conditions (random assignment)
- downward comparison
- upward comparison
- Control

Question 18

Becker (2012) study 1d 2:

Answer 18

· Context: Read a text that there have been “big changes in terms of gender equality during the last decades. Although women have been quite successful, there are distinct areas in which they are still disadvantaged. For instance, women only receive 78% of the salary men earn and have poorer chances of promotion in terms of positions that are linked to power (leadership positions, parliaments).”
· Downward comparison condition:
- Women compare the job situation of women today to women’s job situation 50 years ago
· Upward comparison condition:
- Women compare the job situation of men to women today.
· Empty control

Question 19

Becker (2012) study 1d 3:

Answer 19

· Women comparing their situation with women 50 years ago showed reduced interest in collective action compared to control
· Women comparing their situation with men showed greater interest in collective action compared to control

Question 20

Becker (2012) studies 2 and 3:

Answer 20

Subsequent studies showed an important mediator is relative deprivation

Question 21

Becker and Wright, 2013:

Answer 21

Objective - examine if exposure to particular forms of sexism reduces collective action among women.

Question 22

Patriarchy:

Answer 22

· men’s structural control over economic, legal and political institutions
· The stereotypical image of a sexist man is generally negative, e.g.:
- Explicitly belittling women’s competence, intelligence, capacities to play certain roles
- Restricting women’s freedom

Question 23

How to determine another group:

Answer 23

· Jackman (1994):
- “the agenda for dominant groups is to create an ideological cocoon whereby they can define their discriminatory actions as benevolent” (p. 14)
· Which is easier for keeping women at home?
a. Women excel at childcare. +++
b. Women are not competent enough. —

Question 24

Ambivalent sexism theory:

Answer 24

· In order to maintain male dominance in society it is necessary to:
- punish women who challenge male dominance (e.g. feminists, career women, sexually liberal women)
- reward and idealize women who adopt traditional gender roles as and submit to male dominance

Question 25

Ambivalent sexism:

Answer 25

· Ambivalent sexism theory proposes that there are two kinds of sexism:
- Hostile sexism
- Benevolent sexism

Question 26

Hostile sexism:

Answer 26

· feelings of hostility toward women; negative attitude toward women.
- “Women seek to gain power by getting control over men.”
- “Women are too easily offended”
- “Once a woman gets a man to commit to her, she usually tries to put him on a tight leash”

Question 27

Benevolent sexism:

Answer 27

· reflects positive feelings toward women, including a prosocial orientation toward women (e.g., the desire to help women):
- Patriarchy: “Men should be willing to sacrifice their own well being in order to provide financially for the women in their lives.”
- Gender-differentiation: “Many women have a quality of purity that few men possess.”
- Sexual reproduction: “No matter how accomplished he is, a man is not truly complete as a person unless he has the love of a woman”

Question 28

Benevolent sexism 2:

Answer 28

· Benevolent sexism is a paternalistic kind of prejudice:
- Women are weak and in need of protection
- The same qualities of purity, sensitivity and fragility which are used to justify putting women on a pedestal are used to justify why women are not capable and should not have the same rights as men.

Question 29

Relations between HS and BS:

Answer 29

· Hostile and benevolent sexism are two sides of the same coin (hence ambivalent sexism)
· Both rooted in patriarchy (i.e., justifying the superiority of the dominant group)
· Both emphasize gender differentiation (i.e., exaggerating the differences between genders)
· They can be endorsed by all genders and they both feed into gender inequality!

Question 30

Relations between HS and BS 2:

Answer 30

· The existence of hostile and benevolent sexism as two separate forms of sexism has been demonstrated across various nations spanning all five continents (Glick et al., 2000).
· Hostile and benevolent sexism correlate positively among individuals in various nations (Glick et al., 2000)
· The greater the average level of hostile sexism of a nation, the greater its level of benevolent sexism (Glick et al., 2000)

Question 31

Benevolent sexism - is it really about protecting women?:

Answer 31

· Benevolently sexist men:
- NOT more likely to oppose early marriages for girls (Turkish sample; Malatyalı, Kaynak, & Hasta, 2017)
- NOT more likely to oppose sexual harassment (Russell & Trigg, 2002)
- NOT more likely to reject wife abuse (Glick et al., 2002)
- MORE likely to blame a female victim of an acquaintance rape if she violated gender role expectations for feminine purity and chastity (Abrams, Viki, Masser, & Bohner, 2003)

Question 32

Dangers of benevolent sexism:

Answer 32

· Among women:
- Women tend to view benevolent sexism as less harmful than hostile sexism (Barreto et al., 2005) and they under-estimate the possibility that hostile and benevolent sexism can co-exist in the same man (Kiliansky & Rudman, 1998).
- Sexism is hard to combat because it is maintained by seemingly positive behaviors toward women (chivalry) which are harder to recognize as discrimination…

Question 33

Becker and Wright:

Answer 33

· Objective: examine if exposure to benevolent vs hostile sexism affects collective action against sexism among women.
· Participants: N = 99 women in a school for prospective schoolteachers.
· Online experiment
· Four conditions: Participants in each condition read six statements that differed in content:
- benevolent sexism
- hostile sexism
- gender-neutral content
- gender-unrelated content
· Deception: memory study, remember those statements for a recognition task later on.

Question 34

Becker and Wright 2:

Answer 34

· In the benevolent, hostile, and gender-neutral conditions, participants read: “recent research has demonstrated that most men support the following six statements”
· Benevolent sexism.
- “Secretly, most women yearn for a man whose arms they can find protection and security in”
- “Women have a way of caring that men are not capable of in the same way”
· Hostile sexism.
- “Women are too easily offended”
- “When women have to work together, they often get into cat fights”.

Question 35

Becker and Wright 3:

Answer 35

· In the benevolent, hostile, and gender-neutral conditions, participants read: “recent research has demonstrated that most men support the following six statements”
· Gender-neutral control condition.
- “Women are healthier than men”
- “As compared to men, women are more systematic”.
· Gender-unrelated control condition. Participants read: “recent research has demonstrated that most people support the following six statements”
- “Tea is healthier than coffee”
- “Biking is better for the environment than driving a car”

Question 36

Becker and Wright 4:

Answer 36

· Dependent variable: Collective action tendencies: (10 items)
- “I would participate in a rally demanding equal salaries for women and men”
- “I would forward an online petition to establish a law demanding minimum quotas for women in leading positions”
- “I would act against sexism in general”.

Question 37

Becker and Wright - mediator:

Answer 37

· Gender-specific system justification (Jost & Kay, 2005) (6 items): e.g.,
- “In general, relations between men and women are fair”
- “The division of societal power between women and men is fair”
- “The division of societal power between women and men is just.”

Question 38

Gorska et al, 2017:

Answer 38

· Objective: examine the effect of institutional legal discrimination on collective action.
· How heterosexist (anti-gay) legal regulations affect collective action of LGB (lesbian, gay, and bisexual) people in five East European countries: Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland

Question 39

Gorska et al - institutional sexual stigma/heterosexism/structural stigma:

Answer 39

· “set of organizing principles that either do not recognize the interests of LGBTQI people or overtly subject this group to discrimination and denigration”
· Legal manifestation of sexual stigma examples:
a. punishing sexual acts same-sex adults
b. denying basic civil liberties to sexual minorities
c. reinforcing power differentials between heterosexual majority and sexual minorities (e.g., no antidiscrimination laws in some European countries)

Question 40

Gorska et al 2:

Answer 40

• The five countries differ in institutional sexual stigma (e.g. Croatia recognizes registered same-sex partnerships but Poland does not)
  
  • Online study
  • N = 1,365 adult LGBTQI individuals (28.9% lesbian women, 45.5% gay men, 20.6% bisexual women, 5.0% bisexual men).
  • Independent variable: institutional sexual stigma
  • index for each country measuring institutional sexual stigma enshrined in laws
  • index measuring the time (in years) elapsed since the institutionalization of same-sex civil partnerships in the country.

Question 41

Gorska et al - DV = collective action intentions:

Answer 41

· “I want to get involved in actions designed to advance the interests of LGBTQI individuals in [Croatia/Hungary/Latvia/Lithuania/Poland]”
· “I do not see a need to participate in the actions aimed to improve the position of LGBTQI individuals within [Croatian/Hungarian/Latvian/Lithuanian/ Polish] society” (reverse-scored)
· “I will engage in collective action on behalf of [Croatian/Hungarian/Latvian/Lithuanian/Polish] LGBTQI people

Question 42

Gorska et al 3:

Answer 42

· Sexual stigma in the legal system suppressed collective action among LGB individuals
· Institutional sexual stigma - collective action

Question 43

Gorska et al 4:

Answer 43

· Why does institutional sexual stigma prevent collective action?
· Mediator: Internalized homophobia
· Internalized homophobia: acceptance of societal anti-homosexual attitudes by gay, lesbian, and bisexual individuals which leads to a negative effect they project on themselves

Question 44

Gorska et al - internalised homophobia scale:

Answer 44

· “If someone offered me the chance to be completely heterosexual, I would accept the chance”;
· “I wish I weren’t [lesbian/gay/bisexual]”
· “I feel that being [lesbian/gay/bisexual] is a personal shortcoming for me”
· “I would like to get professional help in order to change my sexual orientation from [lesbian/gay/bisexual] to straight

Question 45

Gorska et al 5:

Answer 45

· Institutional sexual stigma reduces collective action by increasing internalized homophobia
· Target of collective action (institutional discrimination) is also an obstacle to collective action!
· Institutional sexual stigma + internalised homophobia - collective action

Question 46

Barriers to ingroup identification:

Answer 46

Stigmatization (Gorska et al., 2017; Radke et al., 2016; Reicher & Stott, 2011)

Question 47

Gorska et al - identification scale:

Answer 47

· “I have a lot in common with other LGBTQI individuals”
· “I often think about the fact that I am an LGBTQI individual”
· “In general, I’m glad to be an LGBTQI individual.”

Question 48

Gorska et al 6:

Answer 48

Institutional sexual stigma can reduce collective action against heterosexism by reducing ingroup identification

Question 49

Radke et al:

Answer 49

· Feminist identification predicts participation in feminist activism (Nelson et al., 2008; Yoder, Tobias, & Snell, 2011).
· Stigmatization of feminists leads women to reject association as feminists even if they believe in the cause (Yoder et al., 2011; Zucker, 2004).
· Some evidence that both men and women rate feminists more negatively than typical women (Twenge & Zucker, 1999): more “aggressive, opinionated, forceful, non-conformist, anti-male, stubborn, tense, and egotistical” (Berryman-Fink & Verderber, 1985).

Question 50

Violent crowds - “mad mobs and englishmen” (Reicher and Stott, 2011):

Answer 50

· Across history, crowds that have turned violent have been the target of prejudice - inherently violent, uneducated, animalistic, mad, irrational, evil, trouble-makers

Question 51

Violent crowds - “mad mobs and englishmen”:

Answer 51

· Arab uprisings:
- In Tunisia, resignation speech of former Defence Minister Kamel Morjane: ‘the Government is working hard from within to portray the protestors as mindless terrorists destroying their country and refusing any peaceful discussion.’
· In Egypt, Mubarak said that protesters were initially noble and peaceful, but then “They were quickly exploited by those who sought to spread chaos and violence, confrontation … They targeted the nation’s security and stability through acts of provocation, theft and looting and setting fires and blocking roads and attacking vital installations and public and private properties and storming some diplomatic missions.”

Question 52

Violent crowds:

Answer 52

· Approach of government and leaders is: there is no problem with us, the problem lies in the crowds themselves
· Implication for policy: if crowds are as they are described, then their demands are illegitimate and should not be listened to; crowds can only be dealt with by the use of force.
· “rioters are mad”, “rioters are bad”, “the bad leading the mad”.