The unintended consequences of tolerance: The experience and repercussions of being tolerated for minority group members

Levi Adelman, Kumar Yogeeswaran*, Maykel Verkuyten

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Tolerance as forbearance implies the decision to not interfere when others engage in actions or beliefs that you disapprove of. This allows minorities to live the life that they want, despite the disapproval. However, the undercurrent of disapproval which comes with tolerance might carry unintended negative consequences for tolerated minorities. The present research utilizes a novel experimental method to give participants an experience of being tolerated to address two key questions: 1) what are the consequences of being tolerated on personal well-being? 2) how does the experience of being tolerated affect future expectations and willingness to raise one’s voice? Across four studies with American and Dutch participants (N = 1,758), we find that being tolerated leads to less positive outcomes on wellbeing than being accepted (although more positive implications relative to being rejected). Further, being tolerated reduces the expectation of being valued in future encounters while simultaneously tamping down on people’s willingness to raise their voice against those who begrudgingly include them.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere0282073
Number of pages21
JournalPLoS One
Volume18
Issue number3 March
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Adelman et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

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