In this project (carried out for the Equality and Human Rights Commission), Professor Dominic Abrams, Dr Hannah Swift and Professor Diane Houston examine prejudice and discrimination experienced by people with a wide range of protected characteristics: age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, and gender reassignment.
More about Professor Dominic Abrams
Related coverage: The Psychologist and Birkbeck University of London
About
How many times in the past year has someone shown lack of respect because of your race, impairment or sexual orientation? Would you feel comfortable if an immigrant lived next door, or if your boss had a mental health condition?
These are some of the questions that Professor Dominic Abrams, Dr Hannah Swift and Professor Diane Houston asked in the first national survey of prejudice for over a decade.
Commissioned by the EHRC, this project measured prejudice and discrimination experienced by people with a wide range of protected characteristics: age, disability, race, sex, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity and gender reassignment.
The answers were often surprising. Findings showed that 42% of all respondents reported they had experienced prejudice in the last year-a figure that was higher for minority groups. Some participants also reported thinking that efforts to provide equal opportunities for particular groups had ‘gone too far’.
This project helps understand the nature and extent of prejudice and discrimination in Britain. It also highlighted the need for robust data on people’s attitudes and experiences of prejudice. This data can help ensure that any efforts to tackle prejudice are now more likely to hit the mark.
Research objectives
The primary objectives were:
• Gain a representative picture of prejudice and discrimination in Britain
• Provide insight into the experiences of some relatively small protected characteristic population subgroups
• Look at findings separately for England, Scotland and Wales.
Programme and methodology
• 2,853 adults in Britain were surveyed using NatCen Panel surveys
• Additional surveys were carried out to target minority groups that may otherwise not be well represented in the survey (Black British people, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Muslims & People with Mental Health issues)
• Components of prejudice included in the survey:
• Views about equality and equal opportunities for different protected characteristics
• Perceived seriousness of the issue of discrimination
• Feeling thermometer-direct expression of positive or negative attitudes towards a group
• Stereotypes of warmth and competence
• Emotions towards specific social groups
• Willingness to engage in social contact/ maintain social distance
• Extent of meaningful social contact
• Perceived social acceptability of expressing prejudicial attitudes
Findings
• 72% of people in Britain said they had experienced some form of prejudice in the last 12 months.
• Data from the combined representative panel survey and boost sample data indicated that experience of prejudice was higher in minority groups. This should be interpreted with some caution because of methodological differences from the main survey. In the last year:
• 70% of Muslims surveyed experienced religion-based prejudice
• 64% of people from a black ethnic background experienced race-based prejudice
• 61% of people with a mental health condition experienced impairment-based prejudice, and
• 46% of lesbian, gay or bisexual people experienced sexual orientation-based prejudice.
• Ageism can be experienced by people at any age. In line with previous research, a higher proportion of British adults reported experiencing prejudice based on their age (26%) than on any other characteristic.
Impact
• This project contributes to the bank of evidence on how people in Britain live and work together.
• Provides new insight into the form and prevalence of prejudice and discrimination in Britain. It enables us to look across a range of measures to paint a meaningful picture of the prejudice affecting a particular protected characteristic rather than looking at individual measures on their own.
• Findings can help policy makers employ more successful interventions that drive lasting change
• Helps establish a national ‘barometer’ for monitoring changes in the attitudes and experiences of the general population
• Sets a benchmark for future surveys on prejudice and discrimination