It might seem logical to believe that there might be a certain safety in numbers when it comes to protecting minority groups from discrimination. Research from Harvard Business School suggests that might not actually be the case, and that the largest minority group may actually be most vulnerable.

The study suggests that hate crimes against minorities are strongly linked with the relative size of that group in their particular community, such that the largest minority group receives the most discrimination, followed by the second largest, and so on. The researchers believe that this is likely to occur because the white majority fear losing both status and access to resources and jobs.

“When the minority group becomes larger, the majority group feels more threatened,” they explain. “This is why we think rank matters, because it sends you a more concise measure of how likely a minority group is to frighten the majority.”

Early warning

They hope that their work will help to provide an early warning of possible tensions before they really begin, while also providing communities that are facing systemic racism with a way to influence policy discussions.

The researchers examined hate crimes in the US against Blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Arabs between 1990 and 2010 using data from the FBI and the Census. They found that as a minority group became bigger in size, it was more likely to become the victim of discrimination.

“It doesn’t really matter how large a minority group is in absolute values or levels of growth,” they explain. “What really matters is whether you are the largest or not.”

Race relations

The researchers believe that their findings could also inform race relations in the future, as the proportion of Asian and Hispanic Americans is outpacing African Americans, suggesting that Asian Americans may eventually be the largest minority group.

“We’re likely to see increased animosity against the groups that become largest, and perhaps lower discrimination against the groups that were the largest but that eventually become instead, say, the second or third rank in the distribution,” the authors explain.

What’s more, they worry that negative attitudes and discrimination may seep into the labor market and across hiring practices, so it’s important that we try and change things as early as possible.