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Understanding victim group responses to hate crime: shared identities, perceived similarity and intergroup emotions

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posted on 2023-06-09, 13:54 authored by Jennifer Paterson, Rupert Brown, Mark WaltersMark Walters
Hate crimes against LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans) individuals have been shown to indirectly impact other members of the community (e.g., Noelle, 2002). However, as the LGBT ‘community’ is a diverse grouping of individuals with various sexual and gender identities, we examined experimentally whether reactions were enhanced when participants shared specific sub-identities with the victim (N=126). Results indicate that, while sub-group identities may be important, they do not affect the reactions to anti-LGBT hate crimes above and beyond the superordinate LGBT identity. Instead, further correlational analyses revealed that perceived similarity to the targeted characteristic better explains the community impacts of hate crimes. We show that this similarity increases empathy for the victim which, in turn, heightens subsequent emotional reactions and related behavioural responses. The results show the utility of adding intra-group perceptions to Intergroup Emotions Theory (e.g., Mackie & Smith, 2015) to better understand the community impacts of hate crimes

History

Publication status

  • Published

File Version

  • Published version

Journal

Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology

ISSN

1972-6325

Publisher

Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied Psychology

Issue

2

Volume

25

Page range

163-177

Department affiliated with

  • Law Publications

Research groups affiliated with

  • Sussex Centre for Migration Research Publications
  • Crime Research Centre Publications

Full text available

  • Yes

Peer reviewed?

  • Yes

Legacy Posted Date

2018-06-22

First Open Access (FOA) Date

2019-12-21

First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date

2018-06-22

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