Overhearing slurs makes bystanders devalue the targeted groups

Evidence

As noted earlier, the use of ethnophaulisms predicts the exclusion of immigrant outgroups (Mullen, 2004; Mullen & Rice, 2003). In addition, simply overhearing ethnophaulisms can influence people to devalue the targets of these antilocutions (Greenberg & Pyszczynski, 1985; Simon & Greenberg, 1996). This pernicious influence of overheard hate speech on bystanders led Greenberg and Pyszczynski (1985, p. 70) to conclude that ethnophaulisms “are not merely symptoms of prejudice but carriers of the disease as well.” — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1285

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: the passive-bystander harm model of slurs — harm spreads to those who only overhear, which reframes free-speech cost-benefit debates around third-party exposure.
• XREF: Connects to the shame/blame psychology in The Defeat of the Spanish Armada about how public discourse shapes perception, and to moral-panic bystander effects. — connects to: Silence transforms bystanders and emboldens perpetrators — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 151
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1285