Assessing Self-Identified and Meta-Perceived Social Groups for Predicting Day-to-Day Discrimination and Examining Psychological Distress Based on Identity Mismatch

The way that people are socially assigned may influence how they are targeted for discrimination. Whether self-identified (SI) or meta-perceived (MP) (i.e. perceptions of how one is classified by others) and visibly expressed (VE) (e.g. clothing) social identity better predict day-to-day discrimination is an important question that has not been addressed in previous research. Identity mismatch based on SI and MP social groups may cause psychological distress, and racial ambiguity may contribute to ethnoracial identity mismatch. This thesis utilized a cross-sectional survey conducted in Canada and the United States to assess how levels of day-to-day discrimination varied based on SI and MP/VE characteristics and explore psychological distress among identity matched and mismatched groups. Day-to-day discrimination better predicted MP/VE characteristics than SI. The degree of accuracy with which discrimination predicted SI, MP, and VE characteristics varied by race/ethnicity. Middle Eastern monoracial respondents reported disproportionately high levels of discrimination and psychological distress.