“Put a Little Love in Your Heart”: Acceptance of Paternalistic and Ally Political Discourses Both Predict Pro‐Roma Solidarity Intentions Through Moral Inclusion

Abstract

The way politicians talk about minorities institutes the normative context of intergroup relations. We investigated how endorsement of different political discourses predicts donation and collective action intentions by majority members toward the Roma in five European countries. The survey was conducted online using samples demographically similar to the populations of Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, France, and Ireland (N = 5,054). First, results showed that accepting paternalistic discourse versus discourse promoting allyship were not distinguishable; both promoted higher moral inclusion which in turn predicted higher prosocial intentions. Second, donations (i.e., immediate relief) and collective action (i.e., social change action) were driven by identical factors. Third, acceptance of openly hostile political discourse neither predicted moral exclusion, nor lower prosocial intentions. In summary, our research provides important evidence that when it comes to Roma—non‐Roma relations, the previously established distinction between solidarity intentions that aim to solidify status relations versus bring about social change is completely blurred, presumably because of the social context in which any positive message communicates moral inclusion challenging the hostile status quo.

Addressing anti-Gypsyism with context-dependent psychological tools: Research review, meta-analysis and secondary analysis of prejudice against the Roma

“…The participants gave neutral answers in the two countries with small Roma/Traveller populations and stronger egalitarian norms (France and Ireland, Ms = 4.09; 4.10). Furthermore, we found no distinction between the promotion of true allyship in the fight against discrimination and simply offering paternalistic help which communicated low competence and lack of agency (for details see Kende et al, 2023). This lack of distinction is accordant with the finding that when it comes to Roma people, pro-sociality is distinguishable from hostility, but even paternalistic emotions, such as pity, can contribute to positive intergroup intentions (see Lantos et al, 2020).…”

“…In an earlier study, we investigated the connection between acceptance of the most prevalent forms of political discourses about Roma people and Travellers in five European countries (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, France, and Ireland) and intentions to engage in proand anti-Roma actions (Kende et al, 2023). We found that people who approved of openly racist and hostile discourse were more likely to also endorse the moral exclusion of Roma people.…”

Social invisibility and discrimination of Roma people in Italy and Brazil

“…The existence of strongly negative attitudes, rooted in time, and discrimination by Europeans towards Gypsies is evidenced by several sources. Piasere (2004Piasere ( , 2012Piasere ( , 2015 shows that in Europe, anti-Gypsyism is neither a recent phenomenon, nor is it limited to Italy alone, and psychosocial research conducted in several countries (Bigazzi, 2009;Drydakis, 2012;Kende et al, 2017;Kende et al, 2022;Sam Nariman et al, 2020;Servidio et al, 2020;Tileagă, 2006;Villano et al, 2017) confirm its widespread character. The Roma have been, and still are, a target of prejudice, marginali zation, and social exclusion across Europe, especially in Eastern-Central European countries.…”

Navigating normative sources: How adolescents talk about refugees from Ukraine and the Roma.

“…For instance, after the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Crandall et al (2018) found an increase in the acceptability of prejudice toward minority groups targeted in hate speech used during the presidential campaign, and they suggest that the shift toward greater tolerance for discriminatory speech and actions could have played a role in the increase in racist incidents after the election (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2016a, 2016b). We can also expect that people are more likely to act in hostile ways toward a social group if they receive encouragement for such behavior through corresponding political messages (A. Kende et al, 2023).…”