This project has received funding via the EUI Widening Programme call 2025. The EUI Widening Europe Programme initiative, backed by contributions from the European Union and EUI Contracting States, is designed to strengthen internationalisation, competitiveness, and quality in research in Widening countries, and thus foster a more cohesive European Higher Education and Research area.
Roma people are one of the largest minority groups in the European Union, with an estimated 10 to 12 million living across Europe. A significant number of Roma face extreme marginalisation. In nine EU countries with the largest Roma populations, about 80 percent live in poverty. Roma communities struggle not only with education, employment, and low wages, but also with accessing essential services such as health insurance, nutritious food, and even clean tap water. Recent field experiments have shown that the marginalisation of the Roma population is partly due to discrimination: in the Czech Republic, for example, Roma adults are discriminated against in the housing market, labour market, and from public sector officials, while Roma children experience discrimination in access to sports and charity donation in Hungary and Greece.
At the same time, negative stereotypes about Roma people and anti-Roma prejudice are widespread. For example, a Eurobarometer survey found that 26 percent of respondents would feel uncomfortable working with a Roma colleague. In the Czech Republic and Hungary—the two countries to be examined in this research project—the numbers are even higher, with 36 percent and 29 percent of people, respectively, expressing such discomfort.
The DISBELIEF research project aims to investigate whether providing information about the high levels of anti-Roma discrimination can reduce negative attitudes towards the Roma population and increase public support for policies aimed at improving their marginalised status.
The project will focus on three interrelated research questions:
(i) Are there any gaps between perceptions of anti-Roma discrimination and the actual levels of discrimination faced by this minority and, if so, what factors drive them?
(ii) Can the potential misperceptions of the existence and causes of ethnic inequalities be corrected and, if so, how effective are alternative information treatments (e.g. variations in information sources, responsibility framing, and moral framing)?
(iii) What are the determinants of support for anti-discrimination policies, or lack thereof, and is policy support responsive to changes in perceptions of discrimination?
For more information about the EUI Widening Europe Programme, please visit the official webpage.