The Micro-Level Consequences of Restrictions of Ethnic Group Rights: Evidence from Priming Experiments

Growing evidence links autonomy losses and other restrictions of ethnic group rights to separatist mobilization and violence; however, less remains known about the micro-level foundations of these relationships. Combining insights from grievance, social identity, and bargaining theory, I argue that ethnic rights restrictions are likely to cause a combination of cognitive, affective, and emotional responses, including perceptions of unfair treatment by the state, reduced attachment to the state and increased group attachment, feelings of anger, and reduced trust in the state and the promises it is making. As a result, ethnic rights restrictions are likely to increase demand for self-determination, the willingness to engage in protest against the state, and the moral justifiability of violence. I test my hypotheses using priming experiments (N > 3,000) in which I raise the salience of past and potential future restrictions of ethnic group rights among residents of two ethnic minority regions, Catalonia and Tamil Nadu.