Socialisation and ethnic majorities’ attitudes towards ethnic minorities: a systematic review and meta-analysis of correlational evidence

Abstract

Negative attitudes of ethnic majorities towards ethnic minorities constitute a crucial obstacle to achieving social cohesion in ethnically diverse societies. There remains a paucity in the empirical state-of-the-art of socialisation theory on whether and how different aspects of socialisation are associated with ethnic majority outgroup attitudes. This systematic review and meta-analysis addresses this gap by examining how different sources of socialisation (parents, peers, teachers, and the ethnic ingroup) and the content, type and format of the norms they transmit are associated with ethnic majority attitudes towards ethnic minorities. The analysis synthesizes 298 correlations from 75 studies published between 2010 and 2022, representing 46,034 respondents. Our findings reveal that associations between peer norms and attitudes are stronger than those with norms from parents, teachers, or the ethnic ingroup. Regarding content, intergroup contact norms show stronger associations with attitudes than intergroup attitude or inclusivity norms. Regarding type, norms containing both injunctive and descriptive elements exhibit stronger associations than those containing only one. Regarding format, perceived norms show stronger associations than actual norms. We conclude with a conceptual and methodological assessment of the research field, highlighting avenues for future study and advocating for reintroducing socialisation theory into the sociological study of interethnic relations.