Social Identity and Role Models

Joseph Vecci () and Tomas Zelinsky
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Joseph Vecci: Department of Economics, School of Business, Economics and Law, Göteborg University, Postal: P.O. Box 640, SE 40530 GÖTEBORG, Sweden, http://www.economics.gu.se

No 672, Working Papers in Economics from University of Gothenburg, Department of Economics

Abstract: We present a lab-in-the-field experiment and surveys of marginalised Roma children in Slovakia to examine whether reminding Roma of their ethnicity reduces their performance in a cognitive task. Research on social identity and stereotypes has documented that when individuals feel their social group is negatively stereo- typed in a domain their performance declines, which can reinforce discrimination. In an effort to break the cycle of negative stereotypes we remind Roma of either Roma or non-Roma role models. We find that the activation of a Roma's ethnicity reduces cognitive performance. In contrast Roma exposed to Roma role models outperform those reminded of their ethnicity and also non-Roma role models. We then attempt to understand the channels through which social identity and role models effect performance. We show that priming a Roma's identity has a direct effect on confidence, decreasing performance.

Keywords: Social Identity; artefactual field experiments; discrimination; role models; Roma (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 J15 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 33 pages
Date: 2016-09
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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