Fickle Prosociality

How Violence against LGBTQ+ People Motivates Prosocial Mass Attitudes toward LGBTQ+ Group Members.

Jack Thompson and a colleague from the Centre for Decision Research have had a paper published in American Political Science Review looking at the impact of violence towards LBTQ+ group members on prosocial attitudes towards this group.

Abstract

We present a Fickle Prosocial Violence Response Model to explain how indirect exposure to civilian-perpetrated violence against marginalised minority groups motivates prosocial attitudes toward victimised groups. Although the mass public may not sympathise with marginalised groups, they may adopt prosocial attitudes toward marginalized groups subject to civilian-perpetrated violence if the violence is salient and perceptibly illegitimate. However, the adoption of prosocial attitudes may be fickle. We find evidence consistent with the model. Studies 1–3 show that high-profile violence against LGBTQ+ people increases support for LGBTQ+ rights and reduces negative attitudes toward LGBTQ+ group members. But, the adoption of prosocial attitudes is short-term. Study 4 shows that less salient violence against LGBTQ+ people may not engender prosocial attitudes at the outset. Our findings suggest that violent events must be sufficiently salient to initially motivate prosocial beliefs. Nevertheless, salient civilian-perpetrated violence against marginalised groups may not sustainably motivate prosocial beliefs toward targeted groups.

Citation and URL:

Roman, M. F. and Thompson, J., (2024) Fickle Prosociality: How Violence against LGBTQ+ People Motivates Prosocial Mass Attitudes toward LGBTQ+ Group Members. American Political Science Review.