the language of threat: linguistic perceptions and

Original Article

The language of threat: Linguisticperceptions and intergroup relations

Mike Medeirosa,*, Patrick Fournierb and Veronica Benet-Martınezc

aCentre for the Study of Democratic Citizenship, McGill University, 855 Sherbrooke Street West,

Montreal, QC H3A 2T7, Canada.

E-mail: [email protected] Science Department, Universite de Montreal, Downtown Station, P.O. Box 6128, Montreal,

QC H3C 3J7, Canada.

E-mail: [email protected] (Catalan Institute for Advanced Research and Studies) and Pompeu Fabra University,

Barcelona, Spain.

E-mail: [email protected]

*Corresponding author.

Abstract Inspired by sociolinguistic scholarship, this study examines the influenceof linguistic vitality, the social health of a language, on perceived in-group threat andout-group attitudes. Using an experimental design that manipulated perceptions of thelinguistic vitality of French in Quebec, this study sought to ascertain the causal role oflinguistic vitality on intergroup attitudes. The results demonstrate that the type ofinformation, positive or negative, about linguistic vitality influences perceptions ofthreat towards a language. However, results about linguistic vitality information’simpact on out-group attitudes, support for independence and subjective identityrevealed inter-individual heterogeneity.Acta Politica (2016). doi:10.1057/s41269-016-0023-z

Keywords: intergroup attitudes; linguistic vitality; Quebec independence;subjective identity

Introduction

Many countries are divided by language, often finding themselves in tense social

situations. Belgium has been plagued for decades by what seem to be never-ending

linguistic tensions. Canada has been the scene of important social and political

tensions underscored by language that almost broke the country apart. Catalonia

has recently ratcheted up its pressure on Spain and threatens to secede. The Basque

Country and Corsica were for years the stage of violence. These are only a few

� 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0001-6810 Acta Politicawww.palgrave.com/journals

examples of the many linguistic group tensions that challenge state stability and

social peace. Seeing that these conflicts are along linguistic lines, and that language

often plays a quintessential role in group grievances, can language-related factors

help explain linguistic intergroup tensions?

This paper seeks to explore this question. Inspired by sociolinguistic scholarship,

this study examines the influence of linguistic vitality, the social health of a

language, on perceived in-group threat and out-group attitudes. Using an

experimental protocol, we test the effects of differing information about the

linguistic vitality of French in Quebec on Francophone Quebecers’ perceived threat

of their language, subjective identity and attitudes towards Anglophones, as well as

support for Quebec independence.

This paper first presents an overview of the scholarship on intergroup attitudes

and how they can be improved. Afterwards, a literature review on the manner in

which language factors influence intra- and inter-personal behaviour is conducted.

Subsequently, a brief history of the relations between Quebec and Canada, as well

as Francophones and Anglophones, is exposed. The protocol for our experiment is

then described, followed by the presentation of the results from our analyses. The

paper concludes with a discussion on the possible implications of the findings, as

well as recommendations for further research.

Understanding Intergroup Attitudes

Negative attitudes towards out-groups involve having prejudice or bias against

members of those groups and are attributed to a range of harmful intergroup

behaviours (Gallois et al, 1982). Notably, negative out-group attitudes have been

linked to adverse out-group stereotypes (Stephan and Stephan, 1996), as well as

easy and/or false attributions of blame to out-group members (Pettigrew, 1979).

Much of the scholarship on intergroup attitudes highlights a link between threat

and negative out-group attitudes. Besides leading to greater intolerance towards

out-groups (Doty et al, 1991; Huddy et al, 2005), perceived in-group threat tends to

generate protective behaviour (Stephan et al, 1998; Zarate et al, 2004). When the

threat is specifically attributable to the out-group, intergroup discrimination will

tend to increase (Tajfel and Turner, 1986; Branscombe et al, 1999).

Since negative intergroup attitudes pose important collective ills, many studies

have sought to alleviate these tensions. By using experimental designs, some of

these studies seek to clarify the causal dimension behind the correlations. Some of

these experimental interventions have promoted egalitarian values (Katz and Hass,

1988; Pereira et al, 2009) and sought to suppress negative stereotypes (Macrae

et al, 1997; Kawakami et al, 2000). Other studies have attempted to modify the

intergroup relationship by changing the standards of intergroup comparisons

(Monteith et al, 1993), transforming perceptions of intergroup boundaries (Gaertner

Medeiros et al

� 2016 Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 0001-6810 Acta Politica

et al, 1993; Banfield and Dovidio, 2013) and receiving positive feedback from out-

group members (Sinclair and Kunda, 1999; Stone et al, 2011).

Yet, all of these efforts to improve intergroup attitudes have led to somewhat

unconvincing results. Reviews of prejudice reduction studies reveal a somewhat

pessimistic picture, with the rate of success being rather disappointing (Dasgupta and

Greenwald, 2001). Experimental treatments might have difficulty achieving signif-

icant results or can even lead to counterintuitive changes in attitudes (Paluck, 2009).

The relative lack of success of prejudice reduction interventions might be linked to

cognitive factors. It is difficult to bypass or suppress anchored beliefs that provoke

automatic reactions (Bargh, 1999), as it is also difficult to motivate individuals to

change their personal beliefs (Devine et al, 1991). Moreover, individuals might

simply not have the necessary cognitive abilities to adjust these attitudes (Kawakami

et al, 2000). Added to this list of cognitive hindrances are long-term affective factors.

Negative intergroup attitudes can be passed down through generations as emotion-

laden narratives and thus be quite stubborn (Balcells, 2012).

Another reason which can account for difficulties related to improving intergroup

attitudes is that much remains unknown (Paluck and Green, 2009). One of the gaps

that stand out is the lack of research attempting to reduce perceived threat. Yet, few

studies that have ventured down this road clearly show that manipulating perceptions

of threat impact intergroup attitudes (Maass et al, 1996; Rothgerber, 1997;

Kenworthy and Miller, 2002). Thus, further research into in-group threat perceptions

may offer a better understanding of the psychological processes involved in

intergroup attitudes and, hence, provide ways to improve them.

Seeing that language often serves as one of the most important means of

identification and distinction (Das Gupta, 1970), exploring linguistic threat and its

relationship to intergroup attitudes might hold important insight into prejudice

reduction.

Effects of Language on Group Members

Since most ethnic conflicts have a linguistic distinction dividing the protagonists

(Liu, 2011), linguistic factors might play an important role in intergroup relations.

Although some political research has examined the influence of language on

intergroup tensions (see, for example, Inglehart and Woodward, 1967; McRae,

1983), most scholarship examining the relationship between language and

behaviour derives from the fields of sociolinguistics and social psychology.

This line of research underlines the importance of language policies, whether

they are positive (supportive) or negative (restrictive), in the formation of attitudes

between linguistic majorities and minorities (Fishman, 2010). Yet, arguably, its

most important contribution in understanding linguistic group behaviour revolves

around the concept of linguistic vitality. Originally conceived by Giles et al (1977),

The language of threat


objective linguistic vitality refers to the social health of a language, in other words,

the ability to use the language in everyday life. Although studies have explored the

manner in which objective linguistic vitality influences behaviour among individ-

uals (Gudykunst and Gumbs, 1989; Landry and Allard, 1994), the crux of this line

of research deals with another dimension of linguistic vitality.

Linguistic vitality is also presented through its perceived reality. Subjective

ethno-linguistic vitality (SEV) refers to the perceptions of the social health of the

language (Bourhis et al, 1981). Given that the actual ability to use a language and

its perceived facility can be completely different, it is an important distinction. The

scholarship has presented SEV as having an influence on the harmony of intergroup

relations (Bourhis et al, 1981). Specific onus has been shown to lie in the

perceptions of threat to the language, and subsequently to the group, which leads to

negative out-group attitudes (Taylor et al, 1977; Ros et al, 1994).

The distinction between actual and perceived linguistic threats finds echoes in

other strands of research. For instance, collective economic perceptions affect

opinions towards immigration to a larger extent than actual personal economic

circumstances (Citrin et al, 1997), perceiving minorities as threatening mediates the

impact of demographic composition and economic conditions on punitive attitudes

towards criminals (King and Wheelock, 2007) and the scholarship highlights the

prominent influence of perceptions of immigrant population size – compared to the

actual proportion of immigrants – on out-group attitudes (Semyonov et al, 2004;

Schlueter and Scheepers, 2010).

Yet, the relationship between language vitality, threat and intergroup attitudes is

still fairly underexplored. Most crucially, and to the best of our knowledge, the

causal nature of the relationship between these variables has not been assessed

using an experimental design. We directly take on this challenge. We rely on a case

with longstanding traditions of linguistic and sociopolitical tensions: Quebec.

Franco-Quebec and the Rest of Canada

As the only majority francophone province in Canada, Quebec is arguably the

natural ‘homeland’ of Francophones (McRoberts, 1997). This situation led Quebec

to play a primary role in all Francophone issues (Martel, 1997). In the 1960s, after

the emancipation movement of the Quiet Revolution that led Quebecers towards a

new sense of nationhood, the federal government was implementing a new vision

of Canada based on bilingualism and multiculturalism. Canada’s nation-building

exercise placed it at odds with Franco-Quebecers ‘national’ development (LaSelva,

2009). The result was more negative feelings towards and a weaker attachment to

Canada among Quebec Francophones (Mendelsohn, 2002).

In Canadian political science scholarship, this dualist vision of French Quebec

and the English Rest of Canada is quite present. The policy preferences of both

Medeiros et al


entities have been shown to follow a left–right political split in which Quebecers

are more socially progressive and more supportive of greater government

intervention in the economy (see, for example, Mendelsohn et al, 2005). Yet,

differences of opinion not related to policy between Francophones and Anglo-

phones have had limited study (Blais, 1991; Fournier and Medeiros, 2014). In terms

of intergroup attitudes between the two linguistic groups, to the best of our

knowledge, only Blais (1991) has examined this issue. Francophones and

Anglophones are shown to have similarly positive sentiments for one another,

but the research does not explain these intergroup attitudes.

Still, grievances related to a minority language’s perceived weakness have been

presented as leading to tensions with the dominant national group (Medeiros,

2015). Such intergroup tensions are consistent with a demonstrated relationship

between collective fears and negative attitudes towards out-groups (Riek et al,

2006). In Canada, cultural sensitivities have been portrayed as explaining

Francophones’ more negative attitudes – compared to Anglophones – towards

immigrant out-groups (Bilodeau et al, 2012). Therefore, concerns over French

might reasonably lead to negative attitudes towards the Anglophone majority.

The division between Quebec and Canada has been underscored by the

longstanding issue of Quebec independence. The scholarship dealing with

secession points to an interrelation between threat, prejudice and support for

secession that is mediated through trust (Alesina and Zhuravskaya, 2011; Rohner

et al, 2013).1 Furthermore, believing that French is threatened and that it would be

in better social health within an independent Quebec has been shown to be linked to

support for independence (Nadeau et al, 1999).

It would therefore not be surprising to expect that fears related to language have

an impact on a linguistic minority’s attitudes towards its country. Cultural

grievances have been exposed as influencing minority group members’ attachment

to their country (Elkins and Sides, 2007). Thus, if a minority group perceives its

language to be aggrieved, its attachment to the country should logically be

negatively affected. However, to the best of our knowledge, there is a dearth in

research that has specifically explored the influence of linguistic attitudes on

attachment to a country.

Additionally, the literature has highlighted the role of identity in these social

phenomena. This has, namely, been the case for support for independence. A strong

regional identity can negatively impact national identification and lead to greater

support for secession (McCrone and Paterson, 2002; Munoz, 2009). This statement

also holds true for Quebec (Belanger and Perrella, 2008). Research has shown that

identity is also connected to other intergroup variables. Falomir-Pichastor et al

(2009) show that identity, threat and prejudice are interrelated. However, Brewer

(1999) indicates more of an independent path between identification and intergroup

attitudes, so that ‘‘in-group love’’ does not automatically lead to ‘‘out-group hate’’.



Drawing these different literatures together, we propose four hypotheses

regarding the expected influence of linguistic vitality perceptions on perceived

in-group threat, out-group attitudes, support for secession and subjective identity:

H1 Positive linguistic vitality information about the French language in Quebec

decreases the levels of perceived language threat among Franco-Quebecers.

H2 Positive linguistic vitality information improves out-group attitudes among

Franco-Quebecers towards Canadian Anglophones.

H3 Positive linguistic vitality information decreases support for Quebec inde-

pendence among Franco-Quebecers.

H4 Positive linguistic vitality information strengthens the attachment to Canada

among Franco-Quebecers.

Data

In order to test these hypotheses, an experimental protocol was conceived to

manipulate the perceptions of linguistic vitality of French in Quebec through the

reception of factual information about linguistic social health.

Subjects were students from the Universite de Montreal. An email was sent out to

approximately half the undergraduate population of the university’s Faculty of Arts

and Sciences (about 10,000 students).2 Participants in the study were told that they

would have to answer two surveys and read four weekly newsletters.3 The subjects

who agreed to participate in the study and who answered the pre-treatment

questionnaire were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: one

which only received positive information about the state of French in Quebec,

whereas the other one received only negative information about this topic (all

language stories are presented in the Appendix).4 Due to a fear of not being able to

recruit a large number of subjects – a fear that ultimately materialized – there was no

control group.5 The newsletters were composed of four brief articles providing

information on crime, poverty, women’s condition and language in Quebec.6 The

articles dealing with non-linguistic topics were identical for both groups. The subjects

received an email asking them to read a new newsletter every 5 days, starting a week

after the initial recruitment, and a request to answer the post-treatment survey 6 days

after receiving the final newsletter. 265 subjects whose mother tongue is French and

who grew up in Quebec were ultimately retained for the analyses.7 All aspects of the

study (emails, surveys and newsletters) were conducted in French.

The two surveys asked respondents whether they agree or disagree with the

assertion that ‘‘French is threatened in Quebec’’. This scale was reversed to capture

perceptions of the state of the language (running from negative ‘‘I agree’’ to

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positive ‘‘I disagree’’). The question ‘‘What are your feelings towards Anglophones

in Canada?’’ measured subjects’ attitudes regarding this group (from very negative

to very positive). Identity was measured using a subjective identity question,

commonly known as the Moreno question, which ascertains whether respondents

feel more Quebecer or Canadian. The preceding three questions offered answer

choices on a 5-point scale (the wording is reported in the Appendix). The subjects’

support for Quebec independence was measured through a 101-point thermometer

scale of constitutional preferences: 0 (independence) to 100 (federalism) [the scale

was reversed for analyses].8 Subjects were also asked to identify their age, their

gender, the level of education of their parents, their mother tongue and whether

they had grown up in Quebec.9

Student samples can be rife with problems of representativity (see, for example,

Druckman and Kam, 2011). Van der Straeten et al (2013) show that such

convenience samples can severely over-represent some political options while

severely under-representing others. Although it is difficult to completely overcome

issues of convenience sample representativity, these authors correct political non-

representativity by weighting respondents to the corresponding electoral results.

Our student sample did exhibit a lack of political representativity. Since our study

is not an election survey, correction based on distant election results is far from

optimal. Rather, we used the political poll closest to our experiment that published

a breakdown by age groups (Leger Marketing, 2014). We weighted our survey so

that the current vote intentions expressed by our respondents matched those of

respondents aged 18–24 in the public opinion poll.10

Results

Before examining the impact of the experimental manipulations on the attitudes of

interest, we need to ascertain whether the randomization of subjects to positive and

negative information was performed effectively. Table 1 reports the bivariate

correlations between the dichotomous treatment variable, socio-demographic

characteristics and the relevant attitudinal variables measured in the baseline

survey. Gender exhibits the only statistically significant relationship: men were

slightly less likely to be assigned to the positive treatment. To make sure that the

observed effect of the treatment is not confounded by this unequal allocation,

subsequent analyses control for the influence of gender.

Table 2 presents the dependent variables of subsequent analyses. They capture

the differences between each respondent’s answers in the two surveys, separated by

a month and four newsletters. If subjects provided the same response in both

instances, they are classified as unchanged in the difference variables (score = 0).

This is the modal category for three attitudes, and most people’s views regarding



language, Anglophones and identity remained intact. Unsurprisingly, given the

greater sensitivity of the thermometer scale, opinions about independence were

more volatile, with only about a quarter unchanged.

The other two categories of the difference variables contain cases with attitude

change. The direction of the change is linked to the nature of the variable (as

reflected in the label). In other words, a shift in a more positive direction (+1)

means that respondents developed a more favourable outlook towards the state of

the French language, Anglophones, Quebec independence and the importance of

their subjective Quebecer identity. Conversely, a negative shift (-1) signifies that

individuals became less favourable. Attitude change occurred in both directions,

but more frequently in a positive direction for language and in a negative direction

for Anglophones and subjective Quebecer identity. The key question, though, is to

determine whether these changes were driven by the type of information to which

respondents were experimentally exposed.

Table 3 displays the results of multivariate OLS models where each of the four

dependent variables is regressed on the treatment variable (0/1, negative/positive

newsletter information) and the control variable (gender, whose results are omitted

to simplify the presentation).11 To support our hypotheses, the treatment variable

would need to be positively correlated to the state of the French language and to

feelings towards Anglophones, while it is negatively correlated to the support for

Quebec sovereignty and to subjective Quebecer identity. The newsletters only had

a significant impact on perceptions about the French language. Subjects who

received stories emphasizing the healthy state of the language were more likely to

Table 1: Correlations between treatment and variables at Time 1

Pearson coefficient p value

Gender (male) -0.15 0.01**

Age 0.09 0.14

Parents’ education 0.02 0.75

State of the French language -0.02 0.72

Feelings towards Anglophones 0.09 0.14

Support for Quebec independence -0.08 0.22

Subjective Quebecer identity -0.08 0.17

Statistical significance: *\.10; **\.05.

Table 2: Amount and direction of attitude change (per cent)

More negative Unchanged More positive

State of the French language 18.7 54.2 27.1

Feelings towards Anglophones 18.0 68.1 13.9

Support for Quebec independence 35.9 27.8 36.3

Subjective Quebecer identity 10.4 82.1 7.6

Medeiros et al


shift their views in a positive direction, congruent with our first hypothesis (H1).

The effect’s size is considerable, approximately a fourth of the dependent

variable’s scale. The treatment’s influence was therefore limited to the attitude that

relates most directly to the manipulation. More distant attitudes – out-group

attitudes, support for independence and subjective identity – were not significantly

affected by the experiment.

However, one should not necessarily expect the effects to be apparent among the

entire group. It is possible that certain subgroups were swayed differently by the

experiment. In fact, inter-individual heterogeneity has become a staple in the study

of political behaviour (Zaller, 1992; Miller and Krosnick, 2000). Here we focus on

two predispositions that could moderate the impact of newsletter information:

respondents’ initial beliefs about the threat to the French language and their initial

subjective identity. We anticipate that starting with positive/negative threat

perceptions and with a Canadian/Quebecer identity moderates the amount of

attitude change that takes place among these and other variables.12 Table 4 shows

the results of split-sample regressions analogous to those of Table 3 conducted

among three subgroups: (1) individuals who identified mainly or solely as

Quebecer at Time 1 and agreed somewhat or completely at Time 1 with the

statement that the French language is threatened in Quebec, (2) those who

identified equally/mainly/solely as Canadian and believed French is threatened and

(3) those who considered that the language is not threatened.13 To confirm that the

results of the split-sample regressions were robust, analyses using interactive terms

were also performed and are reported where appropriate.

The subgroup composed of concerned predominantly Quebecers, in the top

portion of the table, exhibits the same pattern as the one uncovered in Table 3. So

even strong nationalists can be persuaded by new information showing that the

state of the French language is not as bad as they probably thought. Newsletter

information about the French language influenced no other attitude apart from

perceptions of language vitality. Since this group holds the most negative attitudes

towards Anglophones and expresses the most support for independence, the failure

to find a significant effect of the treatment on such attitudes highlights the difficulty

Table 3: Impact of treatment on attitude change

Unstand. coefficient p value R2 N

State of the French language 0.46 0.00** 0.11 263

Feelings towards Anglophones -0.01 0.86 0.00 265

Support for Quebec independence -0.03 0.76 0.00 245

Subjective Quebecer identity 0.00 0.99 0.01 260

All dependent variables range from -1 to +1, while the independent variable spans from 0 to 1. Gender

is included as control, but this variable’s impacts are omitted.




of improving intergroup relations. Nonetheless, these findings are not surprising.

High in-group identifiers are known to exhibit the strongest belief resistance

(Schmitt and Branscombe, 2001; Jetten et al, 2002).

In the middle portion of the table, we see that concerned non-predominantly

Quebecers (equally or predominantly Canadians), when exposed to positive

information about the state of the language, not only became more optimistic about

the health of French, they also became significantly less supportive of Quebec

independence and allocated more importance to their Canadian identity.14 The

impact on constitutional preferences was particularly strong. Hypotheses H1

through H3 are all supported among this group.

The reactions of people not preoccupied by the fate of the French language were

completely different (the bottom portion of the table). The positive newsletters

improved their linguistic assessments. However, the treatment also led to less

favourable sentiments towards Anglophones and greater support for Quebec

independence, results which obviously do not follow our expectations (H2 and

H3).15 Quite honestly, we are somewhat baffled by these findings. We cannot

explain why individuals who do not feel threatened linguistically would develop

more negative intergroup attitudes as a result of positive information concerning

the state of their language.

In sum, views about linguistic vitality are clearly causally related to opinions

concerning out-groups, subjective identity, nationalism and secession. Neverthe-

less, the relationships between these variables are not simple and straightforward.

They vary substantially across respondents of different profiles.

Table 4: Impact of treatment on attitude change (among subgroups)

Unstand. coefficient p value R2 N

Predominantly Quebecers concerned about the state of the French language


Feelings towards Anglophones 0.15 0.19 0.02 123

Support for Quebec independence -0.12 0.48 0.01 105

Subjective Quebecer identity 0.08 0.38 0.01 123

Non-predominantly Quebecers concerned about the state of the French language

State of the French language 0.28 0.07* 0.11 45

Feelings towards Anglophones 0.14 0.42 0.02 45

Support for Quebec independence -0.76 0.00** 0.20 45

Subjective Quebecer identity -0.21 0.08* 0.09 45

Those not concerned about the state of the French language


Feelings towards Anglophones -0.33 0.00** 0.15 93

Support for Quebec independence 0.37 0.04** 0.07 90

Subjective Quebecer identity -0.00 0.96 0.04 90

All dependent variables range from -1 to +1, while the independent variable spans from 0 to 1. Gender

is included as control, but this variable’s impacts are omitted.


Medeiros et al


The results only allow us to confirm our first hypothesis (H1). Positive language

vitality information does reduce the perception of language threat. As for the three

other hypotheses, the results are decidedly mixed, varying according to the initial

levels of identity and threat perceptions. Although the findings show a change in

the expected direction for support for independence and subjective identity among

Franco-Quebecers without a prominent Quebecer identity and who are concerned

about French, the results are contradictory attitudes towards Anglophones and

support for independence among Franco-Quebecers not concerned about the state

of French in Quebec.16

Conclusion

In his study of linguistic group conflicts, Medeiros (2015) puts forward a theory,

based on scholarship from social psychology and sociolinguistics, stating that

minorities which perceive their language to be vulnerable are prone to more intense

social conflicts. It would be these perceptions of linguistic threat that generate

cultural grievances and thereafter ‘‘push individuals from a linguistic minority to

enter into conflict with the dominant group in order to improve their social situation

(6)’’. Although the study’s findings support the assertion that objectively vulnerable

linguistic contexts do lead to more intense conflicts, the study does not explore the

role of perceptions in the link between language vitality and social tensions.

Our findings help fill this gap. The results of our experimental survey indicate

that linguistic minority members’ perceptions of the vitality of their language

causally impact three factors that have been shown to determine social tensions:

out-group attitudes, subjective identity and support for independence. However,

these findings are not straightforward. Rather, the initial identity and threat levels

held by subjects moderate the causal effects of linguistic vitality information on

these three attitudes. Some individuals are unaffected by the vitality information,

some respond with more positive intergroup attitudes and some develop more

negative intergroup attitudes. The first two reactions are comprehensible, but the

last one leaves us without a suitable explanation.17

However, one main finding is clear cut. The type of information, positive or

negative, about the vitality of a language affects perceptions of threat towards that

language. The results systematically demonstrate that providing Francophones with

positive information about the social health of French in Quebec decreases their

level of perceived linguistic threat. This finding is an important contribution to

further our comprehension of intrapersonal linguistic dynamics.

Given the quintessential role that political elites have in politicizing grievances

(Gurr, 1970), our results would underscore the capability to ‘selectively present’

linguistic information in order to spur nationalistic emotions (fears). Bourhis and



Foucher (2012) highlight the tendency of political actors to omit facts and overstate

disadvantages related to language. Although our results show that language threat

can be used for nationalistic mobilization, they also demonstrate that language

reassurance can be employed to moderate nationalistic expression among linguistic

minorities.

Our results highlight the influence of linguistic vitality on individuals’

perceptions as well as political and intergroup attitudes. Although Francophones

in Quebec are used as a case, the findings should be applicable to Catalans,

Basques, Corsicans and to all territorial linguistic minorities.18 They therefore call

for research into sociopolitical tensions involving linguistic groups to explore

perceived cultural threats related to language. Such a scholarly strategy would

bring much needed insight into the causes of dysfunctional social relations.

About the Authors

Mike Medeiros is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Democratic

Citizenship, McGill University. His research interests include ethnopolitics,

political psychology, electoral politics, sub-state nationalism and ethnic conflicts.

He tends to explore the influence of ethnic identity on political behaviour. Also, he

seeks to understand political behaviour, in citizens and elites, in a general manner.

Patrick Fournier is a Full Professor in the Political Science Department, Universite

de Montreal. His research interests include political behaviour, political psychol-

ogy, citizen competence, opinion change, and survey methodology. He is the

principal investigator of the Canadian Election Study for the 2011 and 2015 federal

elections.

Veronica Benet-Martınez is an ICREA Professor at the Department of Political and

Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. She is an appointed Fellow of the

Society for Personality and Social, a former Associate Editor for the Journal of

Personality and Social Psychology and an Editorial Board Member for several

social psychology journals. She is also the head of the Behavioral and Experimental

Social Sciences research group. Her research examines multi/bicultural identity,

culture and self-concept and cross-cultural research methods.

Notes

1 Studies which have examined the relationship between trust and secession have done so by

employing a general trust measure (for example, the World Values Survey item used by Alesina and

Medeiros et al


Zhuravskaya (2011): ‘‘Most people can be trusted’’), rather than specific intergroup attitudinal

evaluations. To the best of our knowledge, there seems to exist a somewhat surprising void regarding

the relationship between intergroup attitudes and secession.

2 Subjects were recruited under the guise of a study examining social issues. The research disguise was

deemed important because subjects are prone to resist experimental treatments if they perceive any

form of manipulation (Bruter, 2009).

3 The invitation advised potential participants that if all the steps were fulfilled, they would enter a

drawing with a chance to win one of five 50$ gift certificates.

4 Results (not reported) for post hoc analyses performed on 50 respondents, recruited through snowball

sampling and asked to evaluate each text on language on a 0 (negative) to 10 (positive) scale,

demonstrate significant differences between the positive and negative versions of the linguistic

information for each of the four newsletters.

5 The lack of a control group means that we cannot assess the relative impact of negative and positive

information. We can only compare exposure to one stimulus versus exposure to the other.

6 The newsletters were created from pre-existing journalistic articles or governmental reports. No false

information was communicated to participants; all the information is taken from the selected articles.

The positive language stories focused on positive facts about the state of the French language in

Quebec, while the negative language stories focused on negative facts about the state of the French

language in Quebec.

7 The vast majority (about 90 per cent) of individuals who did not grow up in Quebec have resided in

the province less than a few years. Although 317 subjects with French as their mother tongue and

who grew up in Quebec were initially recruited (by responding to the first questionnaire), some of

these did not complete the second survey after the four newsletters, resulting in a loss of 50

respondents due to attrition. Furthermore, a trap question was asked in both surveys: ‘‘In order to

verify if your browser is working properly, please click on 4’’. In order to avoid the negative

influence of survey shirkers (Oppenheimer et al, 2009), the respondents who had not followed these

instructions were dropped from the analyses (only two respondents who met the language and

residency criteria).

8 While this question has not commonly been used in public opinion polls to measure support for

sovereignty in the past, we have some leeway given the fact that the young people in our study were

not politically socialized during the debates surrounding the two sovereignty referendums. We chose

a question that could capture more sensitively opinion movement over time.

9 Seeing that the subjects are from a student population, questions on their personal income or their

education level cannot be used to accurately ascertain any possible effects of social class. Therefore,

the level of education of their parents was employed.

10 An undergraduate student sample is obviously more educated than a random group of people aged

18–24. But this was the best option at our disposal.

11 Multinomial logistic specifications were also performed on the data. The results of these analyses

were equivalent to those reported here, except for the significance of two coefficients out of 16

models. Those two differences are noted below in footnotes 14 and 15.

12 This means that we are using perceived threat at Time 1 to identify subgroups whose perceived threat

would have moved more importantly at Time 2, and subjective identity at Time 1 to identify

subgroups whose subjective identity would have moved more importantly at Time 2. Ideally, we

would have used alternative measures, but none was available.

13 We chose to not split the third group into predominantly and non-predominantly Quebecers. Doing

so resulted in two subgroups that exhibited comparable results, but these failed to reach statistical

significance due to the subsamples’ small sizes. The subgroup sizes are reported in Table 4.

14 Analyses with interactive terms show that the effects of the experimental treatment on support for

sovereignty and subjective identity among concerned non-predominantly Quebecers differed

significantly from the impacts among concerned predominantly Quebecers (results available upon



request). However, in a multinomial specification, the first of these two coefficients failed to be

statistically significant; the p value of the effect of the treatment on support for independence was

.14.

15 Regressions with interactive terms reveal that the effects of the treatment on feelings towards

Anglophones and support for sovereignty among concerned non-predominantly Quebecers differed

significantly from the effects among concerned predominantly Quebecers (results available upon

request). But in a multinomial setup only the first of these two effects was significant; the impact of

the treatment on support for independence had a p value of .15.

16 Our theoretical model suggests that there is a simple direct causal pathway from the treatment to each

of the four dependent variables. At the suggestion of a reviewer, we also considered whether the

impact of vitality on the last three dependent variables is indirect, working through the first

dependent variable (threat). We replicated the analyses while controlling for the change in threat

perceptions to see if this variable is mediating the impact of the treatment on feelings towards

Anglophones, support for Quebec independence and subjective Quebecer identity. The results show

that change in threat perceptions is not regularly correlated significantly to changes in the three

dependent variables, and that the main effect of the treatment is never rendered insignificant by the

addition of the threat variable. These additional results are consistent with a parsimonious and simple

model of direct causality between the treatment and all dependent variables.

17 It is important to note that past studies have also uncovered heterogeneous effects related to identity

preference (Gaertner et al, 1993; Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2004). Munoz and Tormos (2014) ventured

that this is due to the fact that individuals with strong identities are less affected by other

considerations, whereas other scholars point to a radicalization caused by strong identification (Ros

et al, 1994; Beck, 2005). This heterogeneous identity pattern has also been shown to be present

among Quebecers with regard to support for Quebec sovereignty (Nadeau et al, 1999; Mendelsohn,

2002). As for the interaction between identification and in-group threat, past scholarship has also

pointed to its existence (Jetten et al, 2002), though it is still not fully understood (Riek et al, 2006).

Ultimately, the heterogeneity of our results leaves us in a position similar to Paluck (2009):

speculating with a call for further research.

18 Seeing as immigrant groups possess different social characteristics and are not subject to the same

rights of cultural preservation as longstanding territorial minorities (Sanders, 2002; Kymlicka, 2007),

we limit the impact of our findings to territorial linguistic minorities.

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Appendix A: Question wordings

State of the French language

Please indicate what you think of the following statements: The French language is

threatened in Quebec.

Completely agree

Somewhat agree

Neither agree nor disagree

Somewhat disagree

Completely disagree

Feelings towards Anglophones

What are, generally, your feelings towards Anglophones in Canada (and not the

Anglophone minority in Quebec)?

Very negative

Somewhat negative

Neutral

Somewhat positive

Very positive

Support for Quebec independence

Now your opinion on the political future of Quebec. Where would you place

yourself on a scale from 0 (Quebec independence) to 100 (Canadian federalism)?

[Scale reversed].

Medeiros et al


Subjective Quebecer identity

Which of the following statements describes you the best?

Canadian and not Quebecer

More Canadian than Quebecer

Equally Canadian and Quebecer

More Quebecer than Canadian

Quebecer and not Canadian

Appendix B: Negative language stories

#1

French at work in decline for the past 20 years

From 1989 to 2010, there was a decline of French at work in Quebec, which tends

to show, according to the OQLF, that bilingualism in the workplace has also

increased during this period. ‘‘The 2010 study revealed that only a minority of

Quebecers worked exclusively in French: 63 per cent of workers used English at

some level in their professional communications. This was more prevalent on the

island of Montreal (82 per cent) than elsewhere in Quebec (53 per cent)’’, stated

the OQLF in a press release.

#2

One in five immigrants in Quebec do not speak French

Data from the National Household Survey (NHS), conducted in 2011, depicts a

disappointing picture of the language proficiency of immigrants in Quebec. This

study shows that, among immigrants living in Quebec, 160,000 reported speaking

only English, and 43,000 do not mastered either official language of Canada. In

short, one in five immigrants in Quebec cannot have a conversation in French; even

if tens of thousands of them arrived in the country in the 1980s and even before.

#3

The decline of French continues, observes statistics Canada

On almost all fronts, French continues to decline in Quebec – as elsewhere in

Canada – and the language spoken most often at home is no exception.

Francophones may be increasing in number, but not at the same pace as



Anglophones and Allophones. The demographic weight of French finds itself

falling, concludes Statistics Canada.

This observation is most evident in Montreal where the number of people

speaking French at home could fall below 50 per cent within the next 2 years.

#4

French in Montreal: Setback in customer greeting

Greeting customers only French is in decline, according to the Quebec Office of the

French Language (OQLF). The organization based itself on five studies on the

language of customer greeting, services and signs conducted in 2010 and 2012 in

Montreal.

Merchants in downtown Montreal greeted OQLF observers in French 74 per cent

of the time. This proportion was 89 per cent in 2010. Bilingual greetings have

gained considerable popularity, going from 1 to 13 per cent in 2 years.

In addition, one out of five businesses violated Bill 101 by having signs with

their company name in English only. In downtown Montreal, two studies

conducted in 2010 and 2012 by the OQLF on the same 400 merchants show that

18 per cent of businesses have signs with their company name which do not respect

the norms of the Charter of the French language.

Appendix C: Positive language stories

#1

French at work progresses in Quebec

The use of French at work has increased in Quebec over the last 40 years,

according to a study by the OQLF. It examined data on language used at work in

Quebec compiled since 1971 and estimates that the proportion of workers who

mainly use French rose from 83 to 89 per cent between 1971 and 2010. In the

Montreal region, the use of French increased from 69 to 85 per cent during the

same period. French is more commonly used in firms with fewer than 50

employees, the Office notes, while it is the larger companies that are the subject of

the biggest constraints to francization under Bill 101.

French at work has also steadily increased among Allophones in the past

40 years. In 1971, 42 per cent of them mainly used French at work compared to

68 per cent in 2010.

Medeiros et al


#2

French is gaining ground among immigrants in Montreal

The immigration policy aimed at promoting French is bearing fruit. The French

language is gaining ground among immigrants in Montreal, according to data from

the National Household Survey, conducted in 2011 by Statistics Canada.

Statistics Canada found that 18.5 per cent of those who arrived in Montreal

between 2001 and 2006 only knew English. This proportion fell three points among

those who arrived between 2006 and 2011. Meanwhile, the learning of French

gained four points during this period. Between 2001 and 2006, 33 per cent of

newcomers chose to learn French only. Five years after, they are nearly 37 per cent.

In addition, we note that among Allophones in Quebec, 24 per cent use French as

their main language at home. This proportion has increased since 1996 when it

stood at 17 per cent. When linguistic transfers took place, the majority (51 per

cent) opted for French, which was not the case in 1996 when only 39 per cent of the

transfers were effected towards French. Moreover, among those who have English

as their mother tongue, the bilingualism rate of French has risen from 61.7 to

68.9 per cent between 1996 and 2006.

#3

French is progressing among Anglophones in Quebec

According to the 2006 census conducted by Statistics Canada, knowledge of French

among Anglophones in Quebec has almost doubled. In 1971, only 36.7 per cent of

Anglophones in Quebec spoke French, 35 years later the rate stood at 68.9 per cent.

This higher rate of francization is however accompanied by rather negative

demographic data for this community. In 1971, Anglophones represented 13.1 per

cent of the Quebec population; in 2006, they accounted for only 8.2 per cent. In

addition, the generational transfer rate is quite low in several regions of Quebec.

The result is that the rate of language transfer – the propensity of a person to speak

a language more often than their mother tongue – from English to French is

10.6 per cent; significantly higher than the French to English rate, which is 1.3 per

cent.

#4

French in Montreal: Gain in signage

French gained a little ground in commercial signage in Montreal, according to the

Quebec Office of the French Language (OQLF). The organization based these

findings on five studies on the language of greeting, services and signs conducted in



2010 and 2012 in Montreal. Regarding signs with business names, they respected in

2012 the provisions of the Charter of the French language 82 per cent of the time.

This is an improvement compared to the 77 per cent observed in 2010.

Medeiros et al


the language of threat: linguistic perceptions and

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