Coping with Minority Status

Society consists of numerous interconnected, interacting, and interdependent groups, which differ in power and status. The consequences of belonging to a more powerful, higher-status 'majority' versus a less powerful, lower-status 'minority' can be profound, and the tensions that arise between these groups are the root of society's most difficult problems. To understand the origins of these problems and develop solutions for them, it is necessary to understand the dynamics of majority-minority relations. This volume brings together leading scholars in the fields of stigma, prejudice and discrimination, minority influence, and intergroup relations to provide diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives on what it means to be a minority. The volume, which focuses on the strategies that minorities use in coping with majorities, is organized into three sections: 'Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for Who You Are'; 'Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for What You Think and Do'; and 'Coping with Inclusion'.

Deals with a topic of both practical and theoretical importance, namely how minorities cope with their social environments
Brings together work from several research traditions (stigma, prejudice and discrimination, minority influence, intergroup relations)
Discusses a wide range of minority coping strategies
Includes work on how minorities cope with majority inclusion as well as exclusion

Product details

Published: November 2009
Format: Hardback
ISBN: 9780521854993
Length: 368 pages
Dimensions: 235 × 158 × 23 mm
Weight: 0.6kg
Contains: 24 b/w illus. 2 tables
Availability: Available

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Contents

Introduction Fabrizio Butera and John M. Levine
Part I. Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for Who You Are:
1. On being the target of prejudice: educational implications Michael Inzlicht, Joshua Aronson, and Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton
2. To climb or not to climb? When minorities stick to the floor Margarita Sanchez-Mazas and Annalisa Casini
3. Managing the message: using social influence and attitude change strategies to confront interpersonal discrimination Janet Swim, Sarah Gervais, Nicholas Pearson, and Charles Stangor
4. A new representation of minorities as victims Serge Moscovici and Juan Pérez
5. Marginalization through social ostracism: effects of being ignored and excluded Kipling Williams and Adrienne Carter-Sowell
Part II. Coping with Exclusion: Being Excluded for What You Think and Do:
6. Delinquents as a minority group: accidental tourists in forbidden territory or voluntary emigrées? Nicholas Emler
7. Minority group identification: responses to discrimination when group membership is controllable Jolanda Jetten and Nyla Branscombe
8. Coping with stigmatization: smokers' reactions to antismoking campaigns Juan Manuel Falomir-Pichastor, Armand Chatard, Gabriel Mugny, and Alain Quiamzade
9. Terrorism as a tactic of minority influence Xiaoyan Chen and Arie Kruglanski
10. The stigma of racist activism Kathleen Blee
11. Why groups fall apart: a social psychological model of the schismatic process Fabio Sani
Part III. Coping with Inclusion:
12. Multiple identities and the paradox of social inclusion Manuela Barreto and Naomi Ellemers
13. Pro-minority policies and cultural change: a dilemma for minorities Angelica Mucchi-Faina
14. Influence without credit: how successful minorities respond to social cyptomnesia Fabrizio Butera, John Levine, and Jean-Pierre Vernet
15. Influence and its aftermath: motives for agreement among minorities and majorities Radmila Prislin and Niels Christensen.

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Contributors

Fabrizio Butera, John M. Levine, Michael Inzlicht, Joshua Aronson, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, Margarita Sanchez-Mazas, Annalisa Casini, Janet Swim, Sarah Gervais, Nicholas Pearson, Charles Stangor, Serge Moscovici, Juan Pérez, Kipling Williams, Adrienne Carter-Sowell, Nicholas Emler, Jolanda Jetten, Nyla Branscombe, Juan Manuel Falomir-Pichastor, Armand Chatard, Gabriel Mugny, Alain Quiamzade, Xiaoyan Chen, Arie Kruglanski, Kathleen Blee, Fabio Sani, Manuela Barreto, Naomi Ellemers, Angelica Mucchi-Faina, Jean-Pierre Vernet, Radmila Prislin, Niels Christensen

Editors

Fabrizio Butera , Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Fabrizio Butera is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of Lausanne, Switzerland, as well as director of the Social Psychology Laboratory. His research interests focus on social influence processes, conflict, and social comparison. He currently is a member of the Executive Committee of the European Association of Social Psychology and recently served as Associate Editor of the European Journal of Social Psychology. Professor Butera has published extensively in leading journals in social psychology and has co-edited several volumes, including Toward a Clarification of the Effects of Achievement Goals (with C. Darnon and J. Harackiewicz), Learning at the University (with R. Johnson, D. Johnson, and G. Mugny), and Social Influence in Social Reality (with G. Mugny).
John M. Levine , University of Pittsburgh
John Levine is Professor of Psychology and Senior Scientist in the Learning Research and Development Center at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focuses on small group processes, including innovation in work teams, group reaction to deviance and disloyalty, majority and minority influence, and group socialization. He is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and served as Executive Committee Chair of the Society of Experimental Social Psychology and as Editor of the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Professor Levine has published papers on a wide range of small group phenomena and has co-edited Teacher and Student Perceptions: Implications for Learning (with M. Wang), Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition (with L. Resnick and S. Teasley), and Shared Cognition in Organizations: The Management of Knowledge (with L. Thompson and D. Messick).

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