Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Working Knowledge
Business Research for Business Leaders
  • Browse All Articles
  • Popular Articles
  • Cold Call Podcast
  • Managing the Future of Work Podcast
  • About Us
  • Book
  • Leadership
  • Marketing
  • Finance
  • Management
  • Entrepreneurship
  • All Topics...
  • Topics
    • COVID-19
    • Entrepreneurship
    • Finance
    • Gender
    • Globalization
    • Leadership
    • Management
    • Negotiation
    • Social Enterprise
    • Strategy
  • Sections
    • Book
    • Podcasts
    • HBS Case
    • In Practice
    • Lessons from the Classroom
    • Op-Ed
    • Research & Ideas
    • Research Event
    • Sharpening Your Skills
    • What Do You Think?
    • Working Paper Summaries
  • Browse All
    Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back
    Research & Ideas
    Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back
    31 Oct 2022Research & Ideas

    Why the Largest Minority Group Faces the Most Hate—and How to Push Back

    by Pamela Reynolds
    31 Oct 2022| by Pamela Reynolds
    A community's biggest minority group endures the most discrimination from a majority who fears losing status, says research by Marco Tabellini and colleagues. Findings from 20 years of crime and demographic data could help policymakers improve race relations.
    LinkedIn
    Email

    American cities have experienced an alarming double-digit rise in hate crimes in recent years, due in part to factors like anti-Asian sentiment in the wake of the pandemic and racial strife following the murder of George Floyd.

    Now, new research suggests yet another explanation for hate crimes: increased violence and negative attitudes toward any group perceived to be the largest minority.

    “When the minority group becomes larger, the majority group feels more threatened.”

    The study, published in August in Nature Human Behaviour, suggests that hate crimes against minorities tightly track with the relative rank of a group in any given community. A minority group ranked as the largest experiences the most discrimination, followed by the second-largest group, and so on, explains Harvard Business School Assistant Professor Marco Tabellini, one of the paper’s authors.

    Why does this happen? According to Tabellini, white people fear losing status and access to public resources or jobs, as has long been posited in sociology and psychology literature.

    “When the minority group becomes larger, the majority group feels more threatened,” says Tabellini. “This is why we think rank matters, because it sends you a more concise measure of how likely a minority group is to frighten the majority.”

    Against a backdrop of interest among companies in racial equity and inclusion, Tabellini’s research offers valuable clues for spotting tension before it begins. For communities struggling to confront systemic racism, the findings could inform policy approaches that prevent discrimination.

    Tabellini wrote the paper with Mina Cikara, associate professor of psychology at Harvard University, and Vasiliki Fouka, assistant professor of political science at Stanford University.

    Documenting how size matters

    Tabellini and colleagues looked at US hate crimes against four racial and ethnic minority groups: Blacks, Hispanics/Latinx, Asians, and Arabs between 1990 and 2010. Using data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Census, the researchers compared the number of reported hate crimes during those years with demographic shifts.

    They found that as a minority group climbed in rank, or in size relative to another group, it was more likely to be the target of discrimination. The effect remained constant no matter the group size and proportion, and no matter how fast or slow a group’s growth rate. The data predicts that a group that moves from last to first in rank will experience an almost 62 percent increase in frequency of hate crimes.

    “It doesn't really matter how large a minority group is in absolute values or levels of growth,” says Tabellini. “What really matters is whether you are the largest or not.”

    When demographics change, so do attitudes

    One question the researchers considered: Would white people still be racist toward the most prominent minority group as new groups arrived and grew? After all, if whites were to hold onto such prejudices, they would risk the misery of being surrounded by an ever-increasing number of “competitors.” Therefore, they theorized, whites might become more inclusive toward smaller groups they deemed less threatening.

    “Changes in the composition of society due to changes in the size of one group have a trickle-down effect on the relationship between the majority group and all other groups in the society.”

    This is exactly what they found. As minority groups dropped in rank, they were substantially less likely to be targeted with hate crimes.

    Tabellini points to a previous study in which whites became less discriminatory toward African Americans as immigration from Mexico expanded between 1960 and 2010. Hate crimes against African Americans dropped during that period and animosity toward Mexican immigrants rose.

    “Changes in the composition of society due to changes in the size of one group have a trickle-down effect on the relationship between the majority group and all other groups in the society,” says Tabellini. “And the direction of these changes depends on the characteristics of the growing minority.”

    The future of demographic change

    The findings could inform the future of race relations. In the United States, the proportion of Asian Americans and Hispanic Americans is quickly outpacing African Americans, meaning that Asian Americans may eventually become the largest nonwhite group.

    “If there are political or economic incentives, the majority group might actually become more supportive of minority group members.”

    “We’re likely to see increased animosity against the groups that become largest, and perhaps lower discrimination against the groups that were the largest but that eventually become instead, say, the second or third rank in the distribution,” he says.

    Discriminatory practices and negative attitudes may even bleed into hiring practices and the labor market. Policymakers, activists, and business leaders can take steps now to prevent it by:

    Spreading awareness. Policymakers could initiate awareness campaigns to help white people understand the challenges minority groups face. As African Americans fled the harsh Jim Crow laws of the South between 1940 and 1965, they shared their experiences with white people in cities such as Chicago and Detroit. As that awareness spread, more Northern whites began to express support for civil rights, Tabellini says.

    “The arrival of African Americans increased the knowledge among whites of systematic lynchings and brutality against African Americans in the South,” he says.

    Building coalitions. Majority and minority groups can find strength and support by banding together, says Tabellini. It’s an approach that has worked in the past: The labor movement actively sought to recruit African Americans at least until the mid-1960s to increase its bargaining power with companies.

    “If there are political or economic incentives, the majority group might actually become more supportive of minority group members,” says Tabellini.

    Such inter-group interactions, he says, might help foster trust and reduce stereotypes.

    Fighting complacency. Racism and discrimination may not be as intransigent as we often imagine, Tabellini says. The more people understand how and why prejudice develops, the more empowered they may feel to fight it.

    You Might Also Like:

    • When Bias Creeps into AI, Managers Can Stop It by Asking the Right Questions
    • How Systemic Racism Can Threaten National Security
    • Hate Crime Increases with Minoritized Group Rank

    Feedback or ideas to share? Email the Working Knowledge team at hbswk@hbs.edu.

    Image: Unsplash/Colin Lloyd

      Trending
        • 25 Jan 2022
        • Research & Ideas

        More Proof That Money Can Buy Happiness (or a Life with Less Stress)

        • 16 Mar 2023
        • Research & Ideas

        Why Business Travel Still Matters in a Zoom World

        • 14 Mar 2023
        • In Practice

        What Does the Failure of Silicon Valley Bank Say About the State of Finance?

        • 25 Feb 2019
        • Research & Ideas

        How Gender Stereotypes Kill a Woman’s Self-Confidence

        • 17 May 2017
        • Research & Ideas

        Minorities Who 'Whiten' Job Resumes Get More Interviews

    Marco E. Tabellini
    Marco E. Tabellini
    Assistant Professor of Business Administration
    Contact
    Send an email
    → More Articles
    Find Related Articles
    • Prejudice and Bias
    • Equality and Inequality
    • Diversity
    • Race

    Sign up for our weekly newsletter

    Interested in improving your business? Learn about fresh research and ideas from Harvard Business School faculty.
    This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
    ǁ
    Campus Map
    Harvard Business School Working Knowledge
    Baker Library | Bloomberg Center
    Soldiers Field
    Boston, MA 02163
    Email: Editor-in-Chief
    →Map & Directions
    →More Contact Information
    • Make a Gift
    • Site Map
    • Jobs
    • Harvard University
    • Trademarks
    • Policies
    • Accessibility
    • Digital Accessibility
    Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College