Feeling for and as a group member: Understanding LGBT victimization via group-based empathy and intergroup emotions

Paterson, Jenny, Brown, Rupert and Walters, Mark A. (2019) Feeling for and as a group member: Understanding LGBT victimization via group-based empathy and intergroup emotions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 58 (1). pp. 211-224. ISSN 0144-6665

[img]
Preview
Text
Feeling_for_and_as_a_group_member_working_copy.pdf - Accepted Version

Download (296kB) | Preview
Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12269

Abstract

In two experimental studies (N = 120; N = 102), we apply intergroup emotions theory (IET) to examine the effects of hate crime on other community members. With participants from an oft‐targeted group – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans people, we are the first to show empirically that hate crimes elicit more pronounced emotional and behavioural responses in other members of the victims’ community than comparable non‐hate crimes. The findings also reveal the psychological processes behind these effects. Consistent with IET, hate crimes were seen to pose more of a group‐based threat and so led to heightened emotional reactions (anger and anxiety) and, subsequently, to behavioural intentions (avoidance and pro‐action). Importantly, we also show that hate crime victims, due to increased perceptions of similarity, received more empathy than non‐hate crime victims. Such empathy, although neglected in previous research, was shown to be a potential mediator in understanding the indirect effects of hate crime. Results are discussed in terms of their contribution to psychological theory and their potential to support the argument for the utility and appropriateness of hate crime legislation.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: hate crime, indirect victimisation, intergroup emotions, intergroup threat, community harms
Subjects: C800 Psychology
L300 Sociology
Department: Faculties > Health and Life Sciences > Psychology
Depositing User: Elena Carlaw
Date Deposited: 08 Aug 2019 14:27
Last Modified: 01 Aug 2021 10:51
URI: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/40279

Actions (login required)

View Item View Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics