Prejudice against members of a ridiculed working‐class group

Abstract

In five experiments, we examined the stereotypes, emotions, and behavioural intentions associated with a Spanish working-class group, known as chonis. We described a student (Experiments 1-3) or job candidate (Experiments 4-5) and presented participants with a picture showing a woman characterized either as choni or posh (an upper-class group, Experiments 2-4) or with no picture (Experiments 1, 3-5). Depending on the condition, explicit information about her high social class (Experiment 1), performance (Experiment 3), or category (Experiment 5) was provided. Participants evaluated the candidate more negatively, felt less admiration, and were less willing to interact with her or to recommend her for a job when she was categorized as choni as compared to the other categories. These effects disappeared if the student/candidate had high socioeconomic status or performed excellently in the academic domain, but they were magnified for highly (vs. weakly) materialistic individuals. Class prejudice apparently has harmful effects on disadvantaged individuals, but can be mitigated by explicit information.