TY - JOUR
T1 - Feeling for and as a group member
T2 - Understanding LGBT victimization via group-based empathy and intergroup emotions
AU - Paterson, Jenny
AU - Brown, Rupert
AU - Walters, Mark A.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a Leverhulme Trust Grant (RPG-2013-027) awarded to Rupert Brown and Mark Walters.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 The British Psychological Society
PY - 2019/1/1
Y1 - 2019/1/1
N2 - 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. © 2018 The British Psychological Society
AB - 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. © 2018 The British Psychological Society
KW - hate crime
KW - indirect victimisation
KW - intergroup emotions
KW - intergroup threat
KW - community harms
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85059341032&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/bjso.12269
DO - 10.1111/bjso.12269
M3 - Article
SN - 0144-6665
VL - 58
SP - 211
EP - 224
JO - British Journal of Social Psychology
JF - British Journal of Social Psychology
IS - 1
ER -