Authoritarianism vs cultural pressure. Anti-Gypsy Prejudice in Hungary

Zsolt Enyedi, Todosijevic Bojan

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract (may include machine translation)

This article addresses the issue of personality vs. cultural norms with regard to two related problems: the relationship between authoritarianism and prejudice, and the empirical foundation of the concept of ethnocentrism. The analysis is based on a survey of anti-Gypsy attitudes in two Hungarian cities, Salgótarján and Sopron. A random sample of 400 adolescents was surveyed, including one parent of each adolescent (total N = 800). The two locations differ in aggregate level of anti-Gypsy prejudice, that is, the anti-Gypsy cultural norm, which allows the use of a quasi-experimental design. The results support the empirical foundation of the concept of ethnocentrism, although it was possible to detect the effect of cultural pressure on the connection between anti-Gypsy prejudice and general ethnocentrism. Concerning the effect of cultural pressure on the relationship between authoritarianism and anti-Gypsy prejudice, the results support the cultural pressure model in the youth samples, but contradict this model in the parent samples. Multivariate causal modeling of the youth anti-Gypsy prejudice shows that in both cities authoritarianism and parents'prejudice are significant direct predictors. However, the role of authoritarianism is considerably weaker under condition of higher normative pressure.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)31-54
Number of pages24
JournalJournal of Russian And East European Psychology
Volume40
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 2002

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