Anomie, marketization, and prejudice toward purportedly unprofitable groups

What is it about?

This paper discusses systematically different concepts of anomie as an explanation of Group-focused Enmity (GFE) against selected groups in society. The GFE research programme has demonstrated the utility of applying the concept of ‘anomia’ – an individual reaction to disruptions in the normative order – to explain prejudices against vulnerable groups. This paper extends the GFE research programme by incorporating insights from Institutional Anomie Theory, a theoretical perspective originally introduced in the criminological literature. Drawing upon this, it develops a theoretical model that links perceptions of weakened non-economic institutions with prejudices against groups that are readily seen as being ‘unprofitable’. These perceptions are theorized to affect prejudices against such groups via a pathway of ‘marketized’ attitudes and orientations, net of any influence of anomia. This paper’s theoretical model was assessed with data from a representative survey of the German population (n = 840). The results of Structural Equation Modelling support most of the main hypotheses, revealing the additional value for prejudice research of measuring the individual experience of anomie not only as anomia but also with respect to processes of marketization.

Featured Image