Ethnophaulisms and Exclusion: The Behavioral Consequences of Cognitive Representation of Ethnic Immigrant Groups

Abstract

Ethnophaulisms are the words used as slurs to refer to ethnic immigrant outgroups. This article explores the effects of these cognitive representations of ethnic immigrant groups on exclusion behavior directed toward these immigrant groups. Using archival data spanning a 150-year period of American history, the results of these analyses provide a sobering picture of the effects of the cognitive representation of immigrants: a century and a half of thinking about ethnic immigrant groups in a simplistic and negative manner and a corresponding tendency to exclude those immigrant groups from the receiving society. The implications of these results for theoretical approaches to intergroup relations are considered.

Sticks and Stones Can Break My Bones, But Ethnophaulisms Can Alter the Portrayal of Immigrants to Children

“…Similar to previous studies (e.g., Mullen, 2001;Mullen et al, 2000Mullen et al, , 2001Mullen & Johnson, 1993, 1995Mullen & Rice, 2003), the present analyses were based on a sample of 19 European ethnic groups (Belgian, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Irish, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Scots, Spanish, Swedish, Swiss, Turkish, and Welsh). It should be emphasized that the 19 European ethnic groups under consideration in this line of research accounted for 80% to 90% of all immigrants into the United States during the time periods under consideration.…”

“…In no instance does Allen (1983) trace any ethnophaulisms back to a children's book. For a similar discussion of causality in this type of archival analysis, see Mullen and Rice (2003).…”

“…Allen (1983) provided approximate dates for the appearance of the ethnophaulisms presented in his lexicon. These approximate dates for the emergence of ethnophaulisms were used to derive the indicator of cognitive representation for each ethnic group within each decade time period (see Allen, 1983;Mullen et al, 2000Mullen et al, , 2001Mullen & Rice, 2003). Specifically, within each 10-year time period, the complexity of the ethnophaulisms used to describe a specific ethnic group was derived from a classification that Allen conducted on the ethnophaulisms identified for each group.…”

“…Although several studies have examined the antecedents of the cognitive representations of ethnic immigrant groups in ethnophaulisms (Mullen, 2001;Mullen & Johnson, 1993, 1995Mullen, Rozell, & Johnson, 2000, more recent research has begun to examine the consequences of the cognitive representations of ethnic immigrant groups in ethnophaulisms (Mullen & Rice, 2003). The present study extends this line of research by examining the portrayal of ethnic immigrants as a function of the prevailing cognitive representation of those ethnic immigrant groups in ethnophaulisms.…”

“…The data presented in Mullen and Rice (2003) document relatively explicit instances of exclusion: Indicators such as residential segregation and immigration restrictions involve behaviors of direct exclusion from the host society. However, other indicators of exclusion might be more subtle and more indirect.…”