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From ethnic slurs to football via school: the psychology of groups

March 26, 2001

Ethnic slurs, football, school performance, Northern Ireland, and attitudes to the French. These were some of the topics on which psychologists reported findings in a major symposium held today, Saturday 31 March, at The British Psychological Society’s Centenary Annual Conference, held at the SECC, Glasgow.

Passengers prevented from travelling by a French fishermen’s blockade expressed more negative attitudes towards the French as a whole than did passengers a week later who were able to travel. Those with a stronger sense of British national identity were also more anti-French. These findings were reported at the symposium by Rupert Brown of the University of Kent. In two field studies of 352 and 570 people he found that forming a ‘European’ identity often helped create more positive attitudes between different nationalities.

Ethnic slurs reveal how people think about ethnic immigrant groups, reported Brian Mullen of Syracuse University, New York. People use simpler and more negative words to describe smaller, more foreign and less familiar ethnic groups. In turn, these simpler, more negative ways of thinking about these groups leads to their exclusion from society. (For example, they are given more hazardous jobs or not allowed citizenship.)

Children who feel committed to their school and their class group are rated by their teachers as performing better. This is because these children are more motivated and better organised, reported Sabina Aharpour (University of Greenwich) and Rupert Brown (University of Kent).

British Psychological Society (BPS)