{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97721"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/97721","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"The fragility of tolerance: rights, responsibilities, and the challenge of speaking up","abstract":"The student, Tarah Williams, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-17 at 19:12.","abstract_html":"The student, Tarah Williams, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-17 at 19:12.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Williams, Tarah Foster"],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Political Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Mondak, Jeffery","Kuklinski, James","Canache, Damarys","Wong, Cara"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-08-10T20:33:01Z","date_published":"2017-08-10T20:33:01Z","updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:24:34Z","subjects":["American politics","Social influence","Tolerance","Political discussion"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright 2017 Tarah Foster Williams"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97721","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Mondak, Jeffery","Kuklinski, James","Canache, Damarys","Wong, Cara"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Williams, Tarah Foster"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2017-08-10T20:33:01Z","2019-08-11T09:15:21Z","2017-04-18","2017-05"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["text"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Political Science"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Dissertation"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Ph.D."]},{"key":"thesis:institution_name","label":"Thesis Institution Name","values":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["American politics","Social influence","Tolerance","Political discussion"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright 2017 Tarah Foster Williams"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/97721"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["The student, Tarah Williams, accepted the attached license on 2017-04-17 at 19:12.","The student, Tarah Williams, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2017-04-17 at 21:24.","Tolerating difference is politically consequential. If a society is intolerant, political and social minorities can be subject to consequences ranging from ridicule to the denial of civil liberties to violence. Because of these high stakes, this dissertation argues that tolerance requires more than “putting up with” disliked groups; it quite often requires active support for their rights. This active understanding of tolerance is at odds with the discipline’s typical passive understanding of tolerance. Although much is known about tolerance attitudes, relatively little is known about when people will act on these attitudes in the real world. This dissertation highlights factors that can impede or facilitate tolerant actions. For instance, when individuals must act on their tolerance, it is in a social context where they may perceive pressure from others in their networks and in their communities. Thus, the dissertation investigates whether and when individuals are willing to speak up on behalf of tolerance. I leverage a series of unique survey experiments that draw on theories from social psychology, political science and communication to demonstrate how social pressure not only alters the expression of politically tolerant beliefs, but also the transformation of these beliefs into behaviors. My empirical chapters find that individuals are unwilling to speak out against intolerance towards a variety of minority groups, including political groups, racial minorities, LGBT people, and the disabled. Furthermore, the more public or socially costly the action, the less willing individuals are to stand up for tolerance. Despite holding tolerant attitudes, I demonstrate that individuals are unprepared to voice their convictions or explain them to others. The reticence of allies to speak up for tolerance highlights a vexing problem for minority communities and pluralist democracies alike. However, my work also emphasizes characteristics that make some individuals resistant to social pressure and able to help change prevailing social dynamics. I argue that to create a tolerant society, silence in the face of intolerance is the most fundamental problem that we need to address.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2017-04-18 at 10:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10825 on 2017-08-10 at 15:05:54","Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T20:33:01Z (GMT). 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If a society is intolerant, political and social minorities can be subject to consequences ranging from ridicule to the denial of civil liberties to violence. Because of these high stakes, this dissertation argues that tolerance requires more than “putting up with” disliked groups; it quite often requires active support for their rights. This active understanding of tolerance is at odds with the discipline’s typical passive understanding of tolerance. Although much is known about tolerance attitudes, relatively little is known about when people will act on these attitudes in the real world. This dissertation highlights factors that can impede or facilitate tolerant actions. For instance, when individuals must act on their tolerance, it is in a social context where they may perceive pressure from others in their networks and in their communities. Thus, the dissertation investigates whether and when individuals are willing to speak up on behalf of tolerance. I leverage a series of unique survey experiments that draw on theories from social psychology, political science and communication to demonstrate how social pressure not only alters the expression of politically tolerant beliefs, but also the transformation of these beliefs into behaviors. My empirical chapters find that individuals are unwilling to speak out against intolerance towards a variety of minority groups, including political groups, racial minorities, LGBT people, and the disabled. Furthermore, the more public or socially costly the action, the less willing individuals are to stand up for tolerance. Despite holding tolerant attitudes, I demonstrate that individuals are unprepared to voice their convictions or explain them to others. The reticence of allies to speak up for tolerance highlights a vexing problem for minority communities and pluralist democracies alike. However, my work also emphasizes characteristics that make some individuals resistant to social pressure and able to help change prevailing social dynamics. I argue that to create a tolerant society, silence in the face of intolerance is the most fundamental problem that we need to address.","Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2019-05-01","This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2017-04-18 at 10:32.","DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #10825 on 2017-08-10 at 15:05:54","Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-10T20:33:01Z (GMT). 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