PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Research Report VOL. 13, NO. 6, NOVEMBER 2002 Copyright © 2002 American Psychological Society 557 PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION IN THE CONTEXT OF MULTIPLE GROUP MEMBERSHIPS Shana Levin, 1 Stacey Sinclair, 2 Rosemary C. Veniegas, 3 and Pamela L. Taylor 3 1 Claremont McKenna College, 2 University of Virginia, and 3 University of California, Los Angeles Abstract—This study examined the joint impact of gender and ethnic- ity on expectations of general discrimination against oneself and one’s group. According to the double-jeopardy hypothesis, women of color will expect to experience more general discrimination than men of color, White women, and White men because they belong to both a low-status ethnic group and a low-status gender group. Alternatively, the ethnic-prominence hypothesis predicts that ethnic-minority women will not differ from ethnic-minority men in their expectations of gen- eral discrimination because these expectations will be influenced more by perceptions of ethnic discrimination, which they share with men of color, than by perceptions of gender discrimination. All results were consistent with the ethnic-prominence hypothesis rather than the double-jeopardy hypothesis. Researchers have recently begun to investigate the causes and con- sequences of perceived discrimination among members of stigmatized groups (Swim & Stangor, 1998; for a review, see Crocker, Major, & Steele, 1998). The bulk of this research has examined perceptions of discrimination based on membership in a single group, such as a gen- der or ethnic group. For example, several studies have shown that women perceive more gender discrimination against their group than men perceive against their group (Gutek, Cohen, & Tsui, 1996; Kobrynowicz & Branscombe, 1997), a finding that is consistent with objective socioeconomic disparities between men and women in the United States (Benokraitis & Feagin, 1986). Similarly, objective eth- nic disparities in the allocation of social rewards are reflected in greater perceptions of ethnic discrimination among ethnic minorities than Whites (Major et al., 2002). Empirical research examining the joint impact of gender and ethnicity on perceptions of discrimination, however, is severely limited, and relevant hypotheses are contradictory. On one hand, the double-jeopardy hypothesis implies that because ethnic-minority women are targets of both gender and ethnic discrimi- nation, they will expect to experience greater general disadvantage overall than ethnic-minority men and White women (who belong to only one lower-status group) and White men (who belong to two high- status groups; Beale, 1970; King, 1975; Klonoff, Landrine, & Scott, 1995; Landrine, Klonoff, Alcaraz, Scott, & Wilkins, 1995; Ransford, 1980; Reid, 1988; Reid & Comas-Diaz, 1990; Reid & Kelly, 1994). This hypothesis assumes that perceptions of ethnic and gender discrimi- nation each make significant contributions to overall expectations of general discrimination. That is, if women perceive more gender discrimi- nation than men, and people of color perceive more ethnic discrimination than Whites, then women of color should expect to experience the most discrimination overall if these two bases of perceived discrimination both contribute to overall expectations that one will be treated unfairly (Cole- man, Jussim, & Isaac, 1991; Weber & Higginbotham, 1997). Alternatively, it may be the case that the highly articulated role of ethnicity as a historical and contemporary basis of discrimination in the United States predisposes women of color to focus more on their ethnicity than on their gender when making judgments about expected discrimination. We refer to this position as the ethnic-prominence hypothesis. According to this position, women of color will expect to experience the same amount of general disadvantage as men in their ethnic group because their expectations of general discrimination are more closely linked to their perceptions of ethnic discrimination, which they share with their male counterparts, than to their percep- tions of gender discrimination. Two lines of research support the ethnic-prominence hypothesis. First, cognitive accessibility theorists have shown that individuals are more likely to think of themselves in terms of social group member- ships that are numerical minorities rather than majorities (McGuire & McGuire, 1988). Because ethnic minorities represent a small portion of American society, whereas women are actually a numerical majority (U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998), membership in a stigmatized ethnic group may be a more salient basis of self-understanding than gender, and therefore may factor more heavily into expectations of general discrimination. Second, according to Jackman (1994), gender discrim- ination is characterized by attempts to control women without engender- ing negative feeling because men are motivated to maintain positive intimate relationships (e.g., romantic relationships, intergender friend- ships) with women (see also Fiske & Stevens, 1993; Glick & Fiske, 1996, 1997). Ethnic discrimination, in contrast, is characterized by a higher degree of conflict and antipathy because relations between different ethnic groups tend to involve a substantially lower degree of intimate contact. To the extent that ethnic discrimination is more conflictual and threatening than gender discrimination, it is likely that perceptions of eth- nic discrimination will be more prominent than perceptions of gender dis- crimination for ethnic-minority women as they think about the amount of discrimination, in general, they expect to experience. The current study examined the joint effects of ethnicity and gen- der on expectations of general discrimination, and measured the de- gree to which perceived ethnic and gender discrimination contribute to expectations of general discrimination, in order to test the competing predictions of the double-jeopardy and ethnic-prominence hypotheses. We tested these predictions with data from two low-status ethnic groups (Latinos and African Americans), and examined perceptions and expec- tations of discrimination both against oneself (personal discrimination) and against other members of one’s group (group discrimination). We were therefore able to replicate our findings across ethnic groups and across types of discrimination. METHOD Participants Participants were surveyed in the fall of 1996 and winter of 1997 on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Address correspondence to Shana Levin, Claremont McKenna College, 850 Columbia Ave., Claremont, CA 91711; e-mail: shana_levin@mckenna.edu.