Humour is serious: Minority group members’ use of humour in their encounters with majority group members

Dobai, Anna; Hopkins, Nick

doi:10.1002/ejsp.2612

Cited by 24 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 92 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…He is stupid, he has no mind, he only thinks of stealing’. Of course, these are exaggerated, hyperbolic, and contestable depictions of Bulgarians talking about the Roma minority (Dobai & Hopkins, 2020). They are constructions of prejudice.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don't feel insulted’: Constructions of prejudice and identity performance among Roma in Bulgaria

Giroud

Visintin

Green

et al. 2021

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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Drawing on studies showing that arguments about the nature of intergroup prejudice allow members of privileged groups to ‘perform’ a positive social identity, the present study explores how arguments about the nature of prejudice are produced by targets of prejudice in order to consolidate or challenge their own social identity. We conducted interviews with Bulgarian Roma and, based on a discursive psychology approach, analysed the way participants contested being assigned to a Roma‐exclusive identity category, which they treated as produced by prejudiced beliefs of the non‐Roma high‐status majority population. Positive intergroup contact was used to demonstrate the absence of prejudice and counter Roma identity threat. Auto‐stereotyping and disidentification, in turn, revealed how one's own situation is distinguished from the group. We discuss how identity performances founded on prejudice constructions work to maintain or challenge intergroup boundaries. We conclude that studies revealing prejudice constructions of minority groups can explain the sedative effect of positive intergroup contact on ethnic activism and help to reflect on integration strategies that would be compatible with social change in favour of disadvantaged minority groups.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘I don't feel insulted’: Constructions of prejudice and identity performance among Roma in Bulgaria

Giroud

Visintin

Green

et al. 2021

Community & Applied Soc Psy

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“…On the one hand, they are particularly attuned to what they believe others think about their group because they know majority group members have the power to act on their beliefs and so make them count (Lammers, Gordijn, & Otten, 2008). On the other, although there may be opportunities to exercise some control over the interaction through adopting various identity performances (Dobai & Hopkins, 2019; Hopkins & Greenwood, 2013; Kamans, Gordijn, Oldenhuis, & Otten, 2009), success cannot be guaranteed. Certainly, those involved in the production of identity‐related cultural products and practices (e.g., music) are likely to find their options limited because their livelihoods are dependent on orienting to the tastes of others – especially majority group members.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hungarian Roma and musical talent: Minority group members’ experiences of an apparently positive stereotype

Dobai

Hopkins

2020

British J Social Psychol

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Minorities do not always welcome apparently positive stereotypes of their group. At first sight, this may appear churlish. However, we show that minority group members’ theorizing on the production and operation of apparently positive stereotypes helps explain such a negative reaction. Reporting interview data (N = 30) gathered with Hungarian Roma, we differentiated several bases for a negative response to the popular stereotype of Roma as possessing a distinctive musical talent. Although participants recognized the stereotype had instrumental value in easing everyday intergroup encounters, they also reported that the stereotype reflected the majority group’s power to define Roma identity; constrained recognition of qualities that they themselves valued; limited their abilities to act on terms that were their own; and could facilitate the reproduction of more negative Roma stereotypes. Taken together, these findings imply our participants saw this apparently positive stereotype as speaking volumes about the majority’s power to define Roma identity without reference to how they themselves defined their identity. We conclude with a discussion of the analytic value of the concept of ‘misrecognition’ in explaining negative responses to a positive stereotype. We also discuss the potential for such an apparently positive stereotype to facilitate improvements in intergroup relations.

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“…It is important to note that these decisions to play along with the other's prejudices did not necessarily entail the public humiliation of the other (e.g., Dobai & Hopkins, 2020). Rather, one gets the sense of an individual taking pleasure in observing the other being blinded by their own assumptions.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, and as Renfrew (2004, p. 489) observes, passing presents particular research challenges: ‘since its raison d'etre is to go undetected, passing escapes observational methodologies’ with the corollary that interviews again allow insight into otherwise invisible phenomena. Moreover, when researching identity concealment, interview research has the distinct advantage of allowing participants to report their beliefs about how others saw them (i.e., their meta‐perceptions: Vorauer, 2006) and the interactional concerns that shaped their identity presentation (Dobai & Hopkins, 2020; Hopkins & Greenwood, 2013; Hopkins et al, 2007).…”

Section: Hungarian Roma: Stigma and Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

Ethnic identity concealment and disclosure: Contexts and strategies

Dobai

Hopkins

2021

British J Social Psychol

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Ethnic minority group members' responses to their prejudicial treatment can take several forms. One involves identity concealment (e.g., 'passing'). In order to understand such a response, we must explore participants' understandings of the interactional context before them, their meta-perceptions of the identity others ascribe to them, and the varied meanings that identity concealment/non-disclosure may have in that context.Our analysis of interview data (N = 30) obtained with Roma in Hungary reveals diverse forms of, and motivations for, the concealment of their Roma identity. Some participants reported examples of proactive identity concealment, others reported more reactive forms (in which they went along with others' mistaken assumptions concerning their identity). The motivations for identity concealment (whether proactive or reactive) included the desire to: secure material benefits; avoid conflict; take pleasure from seeing others' assumptions blinding them to the reality before them; test (and expose) majority group members' attitudes; allow themselves opportunities to experience the world in new ways. Our analysis highlights the importance of social identity researchers recognizing the diverse motivations for ethnic identity concealment: From the actors' perspective concealment is not always assimilatory, and in some contexts can be experienced as empowering.

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Humour is serious: Minority group members’ use of humour in their encounters with majority group members

Cited by 24 publications

References 92 publications

‘I don't feel insulted’: Constructions of prejudice and identity performance among Roma in Bulgaria

‘I don't feel insulted’: Constructions of prejudice and identity performance among Roma in Bulgaria

Hungarian Roma and musical talent: Minority group members’ experiences of an apparently positive stereotype

Ethnic identity concealment and disclosure: Contexts and strategies

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