Attitudes Toward Active Minorities: The Effect of Rights‐Claiming Efforts by Immigrants on the Intergroup Attitudes of Majority Group Members

Evidence has shown that rights-claiming initiatives by disadvantaged groups can elicit negative (reactionary) responses from the advantaged. The present work analyzes the effect of rights-claiming initiatives of a disadvantaged minority group (Moroccan immigrants) on the stereotypes, emotions, behavioral intentions, and support for collective actions manifested by the advantaged majority group (Spaniards) toward them. Following a mixed-methods sequential exploratory design, one qualitative (Study 1) and two experimental studies (Study 2 and 3) were conducted. Furthermore, we examine the differential effect of rights-claiming initiatives and upward social mobility (Study 2; N = 683) and the influence of group membership and different levels of vindication on attitudes toward the rights-claiming group (Study 3; N = 402). The main results show that: (1) Moroccans were perceived as an active minority but also as a group engaged in upward mobility; (2) Perceiving Moroccans as an active minority compared to upwardly mobile led to less positive affective reactions and behavioral intentions due to perceiving Moroccans as more immoral and less sociable; (3) Only when both Spaniards and Moroccans were presented as active did Spanish participants perceive Moroccans compared to Spaniards as more immoral and, in turn, manifest less positive affective reactions and behavioral intentions toward the target group. Although the rights initiatives by the disadvantaged did not seem to undermine the attitudes of the advantaged group toward them, the findings suggest that these initiatives have a more negative impact on intergroup attitudes than other social change strategies and have the potential to induce intergroup bias.