Much of my social psychological intervention work involves evaluating and improving the efficacy of prejudice reduction strategies as well as understanding the psychological and situational factors allowing people to remain bystanders to (Kroeper, Sanchez, & Himmelstein, 2014) or perpetrators of prejudice (Kroeper, Muenks, & Murphy, in press).
In my dissertation research, for example, I am testing a new theoretical framework that outlines the social conditions under which confrontations of prejudice are more or less likely to result in prejudice reduction. Confronting-—or expressing displeasure with someone else’s prejudiced actions-—is often promoted as an effective prejudice reduction technique (Mallett & Monteith, 2019). However, in the present era, norms about the public expression of prejudice are changing. It is again becoming normative to explicitly express prejudice toward certain groups (Crandall, Miller, & White, 2018) and this has enormous consequences for the prejudice reduction tools that were developed and refined in a social context where prejudice expression—-at least outwardly—-was less socially acceptable. The existing confrontation research focuses on only a handful of target groups and over-relies on data collected in contexts with strong egalitarian norms. These limitations raise key questions about whether confrontations will curb biased responding in situations where local social norms allow greater latitude for prejudice. My framework predicts that when social norms condemning prejudice are weak, people will construe prejudiced actions as inoffensive, in turn, prompting feelings of anger and indignation (vs. guilt and shame) when they are confronted, leading to dismissive and hostile thoughts and actions (vs. self-corrective thoughts and actions).
Finding reliably effective ways to combat prejudice expression in the more hostile corners of society is sorely needed. My dissertation work takes a practical step in this direction, providing important insight into when confrontations will reduce prejudice and when they will backfire (Kroeper, in prep).
REFERENCES
Crandall, C. S., Miller, J. M., & White, M. H. (2018). Changing Norms Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election: The Trump Effect on Prejudice. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 9(2), 186–192. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617750735
Kroeper, K. M. (in prep). When confronting prejudice backfires: The influence of social norms on the effectiveness of confrontation. Doctoral Dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington.
Mallett, R. K., & Monteith, M. J. (Eds.). (2019). Confronting prejudice and discrimination: The science of changing minds and behaviors (1st edition). Waltham, MA: Elsevier.
