Instilling Fear in The Marketplace: An Institutional Mechanism of Marketplace Discrimination

Little is known about the political and sociocultural marketplace aspects of collective fear and how policymakers and other market actors contribute to its development. To better understand this undertheorized area, we draw on archival data to show how UK politicians, journalists, and retailers constructed three racially stigmatizing fear narratives targeting Romanian immigrant consumers. Building on our findings, we offer a practical guide for policy makers, journalists, and marketers on how to reduce racially charged marketplace discrimination by disengaging in creating and circulating narratives of collective fear.