CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Toma, Raluca |
|---|---|
| Title | Roma versus Gypsy. Do politically correct terms trigger more minority-friendly reactions? |
| Summary | In the past few decades, Roma rights advocates in many countries have promoted the use of “Roma” over “Gypsy”, arguing the latter has been imposed on them and bears negative associations. International organizations and institutions have by and large adopted “Roma”, and their counterparts in some countries followed suit. This is a largely elite-driven change, and we know little about how members of the majority population react to such a change and why. Understanding reactions can both inform expectations regarding the impact of campaigns for “politically correct” language, and contribute to understanding how social norms change. Drawing from the literature on prejudice, attitude and normative change, as well as the literature on public opinion and communication, this study asks when labels matter, to whom and with what effect. It formulates a series of expectations regarding the interplay between contextual and individual-level factors in shaping reactions. Hypotheses regarding the role of prejudice, motivation to control prejudice and awareness are tested using data from an experiment embedded in a 2015-16 national survey in Romania. The findings indicate that attitudes toward the group influence how people respond to different labels, with “Roma” eliciting less minority-friendly responses than “Gypsy”. In terms of theory development, I argue that the balance of different forces may depend on contextual attributes. Consistent with this, in the Romanian survey people with different levels of motivation to control prejudice and awareness do not respond differently to the labels, suggesting that if there is a norm against prejudice in Romania, it is not well connected to these wording issues, given its limited visibility and politicization. |
| Supervisor | Tóka, Gábor |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/toma_raluca.pdf |
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