LIEPP's Discriminations et category based policies research group is pleased to convene the seminar: 

What If The Basis For Policy Decisions Is Misleading?
The Case Of Perceived Discrimination Of LGBTQ+

Thursday March 21st, 12.30pm-2pm.

Location: Sciences Po, Salle du LIEPP, 1 place Saint Thomas d'Aquin, 75007 Paris

Mandatory registration to participate in person. 

Mandatory registration to participate via Zoom. 

Speaker: 

• Katharina Meitinger (Utrecht University)

Abstract: 

Policy makers frequently base their decision on survey measures, such as the Eurobarometer or the European Social Survey. However, not all survey measures are valid, reliable and comparable. LGBTQ+ rights received increasing attention from policy makers in recent years because they address discrimination, stigmatisation, and victimisation problems. LGBTQ+ policies differ within Europe. Political and socio- cultural barriers against LGBTQ+ people are still evident in Central and Eastern European countries, whereas the support is higher in North European countries. However, Eurobarometer data show an empirical puzzle: respondents from countries that are known for extensive discrimination towards homosexuals indicated that they are not aware of discrimination against homosexuals at the workplace. At the same time, in countries that are characterized by relative tolerance and legal equality regarding homosexuals, respondents mention more frequently discriminatory behavior. This mismatch between reality and reported perceived discrimination might lead to misleading policy recommendations. Potential explanations for this discrepancy might be that respondents across countries adopt different perspectives, refer to different policies, think of different groups (e.g., gay or lesbians), lack awareness of discriminatory behavior or respond socially desirable.

This seminar provides an overview of relevant measures of discrimination of LGBTQ+ in cross-national surveys of the general population (e.g., Eurobarometer, European Social Survey, World Value Survey), discusses relevant methodological issues and potential solutions. It also discusses different approaches to assess the cross-national performance of measures, such as web probing and measurement invariance tests.