Linda R. Tropp’s research while affiliated with University of Massachusetts Amherst and other places

Racial inequalities in education may be exacerbated by teachers’ lack of confidence about working with students from racial and ethnic backgrounds different to their own. Although intergroup contact experiences typically enhance people’s self-efficacy about navigating cross-group interactions, very little work has explored such trends among teachers. Across two cross-sectional studies and one preregistered repeated measures experiment (N = 1,608), we reveal that (a) White teachers’ interracial contact experiences predicted a stronger sense of self-efficacy about cross-race engagement; (b) White teachers generally showed a preference for working in a majority-White school compared to a majority-Black school, but this bias was attenuated by teachers’ interracial contact experiences; and (c) the link between cross-race friendships and desire to work in the majority-Black school was mediated by a greater sense of self-efficacy.

What happens when disadvantaged group members try to gain power in an attempt to protect their collective autonomy? The present integrative review outlines dynamic social processes and conditions under which efforts to restrict a group’s collective autonomy motivate social movement mobilization among disadvantaged groups to challenge social hierarchies that limit their power. This, in turn, threatens advantaged groups’ perceptions of their access to power and, by extension, their sense of collective autonomy, motivating them to reaffirm the existing social hierarchy by mobilizing counter-movements. We propose a theoretical model, called the Movement Mobilization Model of Collective Autonomy, to articulate these dynamic processes by integrating sociological, psychological, and organizational science literatures. The model specifies the conditions under which social movements and counter-movements are activated, psychological processes that drive action, how they play off each other, and offer directions for future research. Public Abstract What happens when disadvantaged groups feel that their freedom to define and practice their collective identity (i.e., collective autonomy) is restricted? The present theoretical review outlines the conditions under which social inequality activates the feelings of collective autonomy restriction among disadvantaged group members and motivates the mobilization of social movements seeking social equality. As these social movements gain traction, advantaged group members may feel that their privileged position and collective autonomy are threatened. These feelings of threat and collective autonomy restriction among advantaged groups in turn motivate them to mobilize counter-movements that seek to protect social hierarchy and their privileged position within it. The process outlined in this case is relevant to individuals from both marginalized and privileged backgrounds, as it illustrates the different ways in which real-world power structures shape the way they experience and navigate social movements and counter-movements as they unfold in real time.

Relational and societal exclusion of immigrants in Western countries fuels negative perceptions of immigrants among non‐migrants. We investigated how relational and societal inclusion in the form of friendship and immigrant integration policies jointly relate to perceptions of immigrants. We conducted a longitudinal multilevel analysis drawing on probability samples of non‐migrants from the Transatlantic Trends Survey ( N = 27,513) in nine North American and European countries over 5 years. Extending prior scholarship, we provide longitudinal evidence that more inclusive immigrant integration policies correspond to greater numbers of immigrant friends. Greater friendships with immigrants, in turn, corresponded to more positive perceptions of immigrants. Furthermore, we found that exclusive policies predict negative perceptions of immigrants but only among non‐migrants who have few immigrant friends. Instead, when non‐migrants report more immigrant friends, their perceptions of immigrants are positive regardless of policies. Thus, societal inclusion is related to stronger relational inclusion, but once intergroup friendships are established, societal exclusion is less consequential.

Mounting U.S. research suggests many non-White individuals feel solidarity with, and identify as, people of color (PoC). Yet measurement limitations prevent scholars from testing whether these constructs are empirically different. We explain why these concepts diverge and evaluate our claims with an expanded battery of measures across U.S. Asian, Black, Latino, and Multiracial adults ( N = 3402). Using multi-group confirmatory factor analysis, we show these items capture related but distinct concepts among PoC ( configural invariance ). We then establish that these items uniformly measure each construct across PoC groups ( metric invariance ), with mean level differences validly reflecting actual heterogeneity between groups, rather than measurement artifacts ( scalar invariance ). Finally, consistent with our conceptualization, we show that solidarity among PoC mediates the association between PoC identification and support for policies that implicate various communities of color. We end with practical advice for using these items in surveys of racially diverse populations.

Research suggests that positive contact with majorities may ‘sedate’ (undermine) minority support for social change, while negative contact may promote it. However, most studies to date have examined both forms of contact separately, which may not give an accurate picture of their effects. This study examines the joint effects and interplay of positive and negative contact on minority support for social change, and the role of system-fairness beliefs across seven ethnic minority samples in six countries (N = 790). Multigroup Structural Equation Modelling showed that negative contact predicted higher minority support for social change. Positive contact predicted both less support for social change indirectly via enhanced system-fairness beliefs, and more support for social change directly. Except for one national context, the total effects of positive contact were either non-significant or significantly positive. This shows that increased system-fairness beliefs can explain sedative effects of positive contact, and that positive contact may also promote support for social change. We conclude that sedative effects of positive contact may be overestimated by not considering negative contact.

Objectives: Perceptions of unequal treatment, especially when shared, can challenge the status-quo. Starting from the social grounding of shared perceptions, we ask when perceptions of inequality align and converge in ethno–racially diverse peer groups. We are especially interested when perceptions are shared among peers across ethno–racial group boundaries. Social–psychological research suggests asymmetric sharing: Ethno–racial minority group members often see less inequality with more majority contact, while in some cases ethno–racial majority members perceive more inequality with more minority contact. Therefore, we ask if perceptions of inequality are shared across minority and majority groups within time and if perceptions of inequality converge over time. Method: We focus on schools as sites of inequality and cross-group interactions. First, we tested our predictions with 290 minority and 468 majority youth in 53 classes in the United States using multilevel modelling. Next, we implemented follow-up studies in Belgium with 1,800 minority and 1,700 majority adolescents in 433 classes using longitudinal multilevel models. Results: In line with intragroup sharing, minority and majority youth shared their minority and majority peers’ perceptions of inequality, respectively. Furthermore, we documented cross–group sharing: Majority youth also shared their minority peers’ perceptions, especially in contexts with higher minority proportions. Conclusions: We found consistent evidence of sharing minority perceptions, so that both majority and minority youth would see inequality through their minority peers’ eyes.

Increasing ethnic and racial diversity often fuels feelings of threat among ethnic-racial majorities (e.g., self-identifiedwhite Americans and European nationals). We contend that these threat perceptions depend on the policy context.Across four studies, we test whether more inclusive immigrant integration policies attenuate ethnic-racial majorities’ threat reactions. Studies 1 to 3 (n = 469, 733, and 1745, respectively) used experimental methods with whiteAmerican participants in the United States. Study 4 (n = 499,075) used secondary analysis of survey data compar-ing attitudes of nationals in 30 European countries and measured the impact of actual changes in diversity andpolicies over 10 years. Our results show that integration policies shape threat reactions even in those situationswhen increasing diversity could be seen as the most threatening: when narratives highlight the majority’s impend-ing minority position or when diversity suddenly increases. When policies are more inclusive toward immigrants,ethnic-racial majority participants report less threat (or no threat) in response to increasing diversity

Cheek, J.M., Cheek, H.N., Cheek, N.N., Tropp, L.R., & Benheim, T.S. (2023). History and Bibliography of the The Aspects of Identity Questionnaire: Personal, Relational, Public(Social), and Collective Identity Orientation Scales in the AIQ-IV. Technical Report, Wellesley College Department of Psychology, Wellesley, MA USA.