Within the framework of the ALIADXS project (PID2019-111549GB-I00 funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/), researchers from CIMCYC have conducted multiple studies on collaborations among different social groups. Overall, the results show that such collaborations are an effective way to facilitate coping with threats to social identities (such as gender, ethnicity, or class). They also serve to: a) reduce inequalities through concrete collective actions, b) increase intolerance towards economic, intercultural, or gender inequalities, and c) empower or strengthen the capacities of socially disadvantaged groups to respond to these threats.
The results of studies using survey methodology, experimental designs, and focus groups conducted within the research team with migrants, individuals with low socioeconomic status, women, or LGBTQ+ individuals, demonstrate how these alliances between groups are more effective when they are based on an egalitarian motivation to promote greater social justice by advantaged group members. Meanwhile, paternalistic motivations may have collateral effects that perpetuate existing social inequalities (for example, increasing subtle prejudice towards disadvantaged groups).
The way these collaborations between groups are established is also important. Thus, a coalition collaboration based on mutual respect and the maintenance of each group's identities may be more accepted by disadvantaged groups than a collaboration that involves merging groups into a single category of common identity.
These results provide relevant information for working with collectives and social groups in situations of social disadvantage, to improve the real possibilities of changing structures and to reduce the social, economic, and gender inequalities that still persist in today's society.
Researchers:
Soledad de Lemus, Ana Urbiola, Danna Galván, Ángel del Fresno, Lucía Estevan-Reina, Cristina Carmona, Álvaro Rodríguez, Marcin Bukowski, Julia Becker, and Craig McGarty
Contact:
Soledad de Lemus
slemus@ugr.es
Website link: https://www.pps-ugr.es/labs/psicologia-del-cambio-social/
YouTube channel link: https://www.youtube.com/@social_changelab