Intergroup Boundaries and Attitudes

Abstract

Many prejudice reduction strategies involve linking the self to outgroup members. We tested the novel question of whether establishing a potent link with a single outgroup member can reduce explicit and implicit prejudice toward the outgroup as a whole. White participants completed a mock adoption procedure where they "adopted" a baby from another country. Three experiments showed that this single link fostered perceived overlap between the self and the ethnic outgroup. This overlap mediated the effect of the adoption manipulation on explicit prejudice, which was significantly reduced. Whereas the single link was insufficient to reduce implicit prejudice significantly when the self-outgroup member link was not practiced, repeatedly practicing this connection reduced prejudice significantly in comparison with a control group that had no connection to the outgroup member. Furthermore, unlike explicit attitudes, this effect was direct.

Forging links with the self to combat implicit bias

“…Recent research from our lab suggests that this would not be the case. Specifically, Gulker and Monteith (2012) found that linking a member of an outgroup to the self was associated with implicit bias reduction when participants repeatedly practiced the self–other link (Experiment 2). However, merely linking an outgroup member to the self—without conditioning this link—had no effect on implicit biases (Experiment 1).…”