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How Racial/Ethnic Bullying Affects Rejection Sensitivity: The Role of Social Dominance Orientation

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  • Chinese University of Hong Kong Shenzhen
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Abstract

The authors built upon models of workplace bullying to examine how racial/ethnic bullying can lead to racial/ethnic minorities’ sensitivity to future discrimination via its effects on race/ethnic-related stress. With a sample of racial/ethnic minorities, they found support for this process. Individual differences in social dominance orientation (SDO) also attenuated the mediation: The indirect effect of race/ethnic-related stress was weaker for minorities who endorse hierarchy legitimizing ideologies (high in SDO) compared to minorities low in SDO. Practical implications for the management of minority employees’ experiences of discrimination are discussed.
BRIEF REPORT
How Racial/Ethnic Bullying Affects Rejection Sensitivity:
The Role of Social Dominance Orientation
Ivan H. C. Wu
Michigan State University Brent Lyons
Simon Fraser University
Frederick T. L. Leong
Michigan State University
The authors built upon models of workplace bullying to examine how racial/ethnic bullying can lead to
racial/ethnic minorities’ sensitivity to future discrimination via its effects on race/ethnic-related stress.
With a sample of racial/ethnic minorities, they found support for this process. Individual differences in
social dominance orientation (SDO) also attenuated the mediation: The indirect effect of race/ethnic-
related stress was weaker for minorities who endorse hierarchy legitimizing ideologies (high in SDO)
compared to minorities low in SDO. Practical implications for the management of minority employees’
experiences of discrimination are discussed.
Keywords: discrimination, race-related stress, rejection sensitivity, social dominance, workplace bullying
The pervasive and negative effects of workplace bullying have
been well-documented (e.g., Hoel, Einarsen, & Cooper, 2003;
Leymann, 1996). However, relatively little research has examined
the effects of workplace bullying directed toward racial/ethnic
minorities (REM). This is surprising in light of evidence suggest-
ing that REM are disproportionately targeted by racial/ethnic bul-
lying in the U.S. workplace and that experiencing racial/ethnic
bullying is associated with detriments to minorities’ health, well-
being, and work performance (Buchanan, Bergman, Bruce,
Woods, & Lichty, 2009;Fox & Stallworth, 2005;Lewis & Gunn,
2007). Experiencing racial/ethnic bullying may also further sensitize
minorities’ to perceiving future discrimination.
Indeed, research has alluded to how past exposure to discrimi-
nation can sensitize minorities to future racial/ethnic victimization
(Barrett & Swim, 1998;Ilgen & Youtz, 1986;Major et al., 2002).
Research has also demonstrated that exposure to discrimination is
related to heightened anxiety in response to ambiguous interper-
sonal events (Bennett, Merrit, Edwards, & Sollers, 2004;Greer,
Vendemia, & Stancil, 2012), which is subsequently related to
negative mental and health outcomes (Ashburn-Nardo, Monteith,
Arthur, & Bain, 2007; Henson, Derlega, Pearson, Ferrer, & Hol-
mes, 2013). However, to date, researchers have not empirically
examined mechanisms that can explain the development of race/
ethnic-based rejection sensitivity, which is defined as the height-
ened propensity to perceive ambiguous events in the environment
as threatening to one’s race/ethnicity (Downey & Feldman, 1996;
Mendoza-Denton et al., 2002). An examination of such a mecha-
nism is the focus of the current study.
Extant research examining how exposure to discrimination af-
fects sensitivity to future discrimination has tended to examine
single incidents of discrimination in lab studies and/or general
experiences of discrimination (e.g., Major et al., 2002) without
considering the pernicious effects of racial/ethnic bullying. Racial/
ethnic bullying is a form of discrimination, but it specifically
involves repeated instances of negative racial/ethnic-based acts
(Einarsen, 1999;Fox & Stallworth, 2005) that lead to a widening
power differential between the perpetrator and victim as the bul-
lying continues over time (Hershcovis, 2011). The severe and
overbearing effects of bullying can leave victims feeling anxious
and helpless, leading them to constantly worry about further vic-
timization (Einarsen, 1999). In the current study we build on
models of workplace bullying (Einarsen, 2011) and work stress
(Pratt & Barling, 1988) to examine a process of how stress
uniquely experienced by REM (i.e., racial/ethnic-based stress;
Harrell, 2000) can explain how racial/ethnic bullying affects race/
ethnic-related rejection sensitivity
In addition, we also examine how individual differences in
beliefs that legitimize the prevailing status hierarchy—social dom-
inance orientation (SDO; Pratto, Sidanius, Stallworth, & Malle.,
1994)—affect minorities’ stress and rejection-sensitivity responses
to racial/ethnic bullying. Previous research has indicated that
members of low status groups (e.g., women, REM) who endorse
status-legitimizing beliefs are less likely to make attributions of
discrimination compared to those who do not endorse status-
This article was published Online First October 13, 2014.
Ivan H. C. Wu, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University;
Brent Lyons, Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University; Fred-
erick T. L. Leong, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University.
Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Ivan
H. C. Wu, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, 316
Physics Rd-Rm 26, East Lansing, MI 48824. E-mail: wuivan@msu.edu
This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers.
This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology © 2014 American Psychological Association
2015, Vol. 21, No. 1, 156–161 1099-9809/15/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0037930
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... Higher scores reflected higher rejection sensitivity. The A-RSQ has shown good psychometric properties (Berenson et al., 2013) across cultures and languages (e.g., in India, Alexander et al., 2021; in a sample of African Americans, Wu et al., 2015), including in a sample of Jewish Hebrew-speaking mothers in Israel (Harel-Zeira et al., 2019) and Arabic-speaking adults in Egypt (El Keshky et al., 2023). Studies have shown that A-RSQ scores are related to relational aggression (e.g., Romero-Canyas et al., 2010) and are predictive of depressive and anxiety symptoms and loneliness (see meta-analysis in Gao et al., 2017). ...
... Future research with larger samples and with larger subsamples of Arab fathers is called for. Previous research on rejection sensitivity and on parents' and children's SIP included samples from various ethnocultural backgrounds; findings suggest these constructs are likely to be universal (e.g., Rah & Parke, 2008;Şenol & Metin, 2021;Wu et al., 2015). Nevertheless, research with larger samples may have the statistical power to examine whether the interplay between parents' rejection sensitivity, parents' SIP of their children's peer interactions, and children's SIP is modified by ethnocultural background. ...
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Objective Joining efforts to reveal how fathers affect their children's social competence, we examined whether fathers' rejection sensitivity was associated with biases in their children's social information processing. We also explored whether this link was indirect via biases in fathers' social information processing of their children's peer interactions and, in particular, fathers' behavioral responses. Background Children's social information processing biases predict their social competence and well‐being. Studies have explored how mothers' rejection sensitivity may impact children's social information processing. Yet, little is known about the role of fathers in this context. Method Participants were 85 fathers living in Israel (68.24% Jewish; 31.76% Arab) and their kindergarten children (55.29% female; M Child age in months = 68.70, SD = 5.59). Fathers completed the Adult Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire and reported their attributions, emotions, and likely behaviors in ambiguous hypothetical scenarios that might suggest a rejection of their child by peers using the Peer Rejection Scenarios measure. Children were interviewed using the Social Information Processing Interview–Preschool Version, tapping hypothetical peer interactions. Results Fathers' rejection sensitivity was indirectly related to children's generation of maladaptive responses to ambiguous peer interactions through fathers' reports of their more negative emotions and overinvolved behavioral responses. Conclusion Results underscore the role of fathers' rejection sensitivity and emotional and behavioral responses in children's social information processing. Implications The study points to the need to consider paternal rejection sensitivity in research and interventions focused on promoting children's social competence.
... Bond et al. (2010) discussed how workplace bullying experience results in post-traumatic stress disorder including hyper arousal and high alert. Wu et al. (2015) found that victims of race/ethnic workplace bullying are likely to develop heightened sensitivity towards future race/ethic bullying behaviours via posttraumatic stress. Therefore, studies suggest that victims of harassment will likely develop high alert and awareness for the types of behaviours in their surroundings that resemble those harassment behaviours that they directly experienced. ...
... The empirical results support our hypothesis predicting a positive relationship between experienced harassment and observed harassment. These findings are consistent with previous studies that found victims of harassment develop negative views about people in the workplace or high alert for similar behaviours (Bond et al., 2010;Rodríguez-Muñoz et al., 2010;Wu et al., 2015). The findings also suggest that, as indicated by Jacobson and Eaton (2018), exploring the topic of harassment from the perspective of cognitive schemas can help advance research on harassment. ...
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Building on cognitive schema theory, this study investigates the relationship between experienced and observed harassment in a university setting. It also examines two moderators—organizational identification and perceived justice. Using a cross sectional survey, data were gathered from 276 academics and staff in a private university with approximately 9000 students located in the southeastern United States. The results suggest that employees who personally experience workplace harassment are more likely to observe others as being targets of harassment. They also suggest that organizational identification and perceptions of organizational justice moderate the relationship between experienced harassment and observed harassment. Overall, the findings support the important role of schemas in understanding how pre‐organized cognitive templates can impact perceptions of observed harassment in an academic context, and also stress the central roles of organizational identification and perceived justice in managing harassment. With respect to practical implications for higher educational institutions, human resource managers must work hard at making sure that faculty, staff and students perceive their universities to have fair systems in place so they can have trust in their institutions, thus increasing the likelihood that individuals will more likely disassociate their own negative experiences from the harassment schema. Managers should also implement programmes to build positive organizational cultures or school spirit.
... This finding is consistent with that of similar previous studies investigating the relationship between bullying, peer rejection, various forms of victimization and rejection sensitivity (Gao, et al., 2021;Shafiq & Batool, 2022;Wu, Lyons & Leong, 2015). Past research has indicated that the association of rejection sensitivity with peer victimization aligns with the Social Information Processing (SIP) Theory (Crick & Dodge, 1994). ...
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