The Association between Perceived and Actual Xenophobia (APAX)
Final Report Abstract
Liberal democracies are founded on the principle of equal dignity, which necessitates legally prohibiting (ethno-racial) discrimination. Discrimination, however, is often covert, making it difficult for individuals to ascertain whether they have experienced it. Despite this, surveys of reported discrimination experiences are widely used by policymakers and social scientists as monitoring tools. Furthermore, research on the “integration paradox” suggests that better-integrated immigrants and their descendants may report discrimination more accurately due to their enhanced understanding of mainstream society. This project investigated the accuracy of discrimination perception among individuals with immigrant backgrounds in Germany, specifically examining whether those with greater access to mainstream society perceive discrimination more accurately. Based on a novel three-stage methodology involving surveys, behavioural games, and survey experiments, this project shows that generally, individuals do not expect nor perceive discrimination, and this perception is largely accurate. However, those who do expect and perceive discrimination are often mistaken and tend to overinterpret ambiguous signals of disadvantage. Contrary to the implications of the integration paradox, betterintegrated immigrants and their descendants do not demonstrate greater accuracy in perceiving discrimination.
Publications
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“The Integration Paradox: First Results from a Meta-Analysis and Proposal of a New Experimental Research Design”. Presentation at: Nuffied College, University of Oxford, and the Swedish Institute for Social Research (SOFI), Stockholm University
Schaeffer, Merlin & Judith Kas
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“Misperceived Discrimination”. Presentation at: CEPDISC’22 Conference on Discrimination at Aarhus University, ACES 2022 at Utrecht University, International Conference on Social Dilemmas at Uni Copenhagen, In_Equality Colloquim at Uni Konstanz, 14th Annual INAS conference at EUI, the Colloquium for Analytical Sociology at EUI, International Conference on Social Dilemmas at University of Copenhagen
Schaeffer, Merlin & Judith Kas
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The Association between Actual and Perceived Discrimination (APAD): Technical Report. Center for Open Science.
Schaeffer, Merlin; Kas, Judith & Hagedorn, Pia
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The Integration Paradox: A Review and Meta-Analysis of the Complex Relationship Between Integration and Reports of Discrimination. International Migration Review, 58(3), 1384-1409.
Schaeffer, Merlin & Kas, Judith
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Correcting misperceptions about ethno‐racial discrimination: The limits of evidence‐based awareness raising to promote support for equal‐treatment policies. American Journal of Political Science, 70(1), 54-75.
Schaeffer, Merlin; Krakowski, Krzysztof & Olsen, Asmus Leth
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The integration paradox: Does awareness of the extent of ethno‐racial discrimination increase reports of discrimination?. Political Psychology, 46(3), 623-636.
Schaeffer, Merlin & Kas, Judith
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“The Sociology of Misperceived Discrimination”. Presentation at: presentation at CEPDISC ’25 at Aarhus University, Colloquium for Sociology at Mannheim University, Colloquium for Migration Research at Aarhus University
Schaeffer, Merlin
