The Effects of Race and Prejudice Level on the Influence of Famous Figures.
Institution
University of Kentucky
Faculty Advisor/ Mentor
Donald A. Saucier
Abstract
We hypothesized that varying the race and prejudice level of a famous individual would alter participants’ reactions to the individual, evaluation of the individual, and performance on numerous racism measures. One-hundred and fourteen White undergraduate students participated in a 2 (race of the famous individual: black or white) x 2 (prejudice level of the individual’s statement: prejudiced or nonprejudiced) independent groups factorial design. Our results showed that participants had more negative reactions towards the prejudiced, White individual than towards the Black, and felt significantly guiltier and after reading the prejudiced, White individual’s statement than participants in the prejudiced, Black condition. Further, the participants expressed less prejudice when exposed to the high-prejudiced White individual than when exposed to the low-prejudiced White individual, contrary to our predictions. These results demonstrate that exposure to extreme opinions of highprejudiced in-group members may actually reduce the expression of racism.
The Effects of Race and Prejudice Level on the Influence of Famous Figures.
We hypothesized that varying the race and prejudice level of a famous individual would alter participants’ reactions to the individual, evaluation of the individual, and performance on numerous racism measures. One-hundred and fourteen White undergraduate students participated in a 2 (race of the famous individual: black or white) x 2 (prejudice level of the individual’s statement: prejudiced or nonprejudiced) independent groups factorial design. Our results showed that participants had more negative reactions towards the prejudiced, White individual than towards the Black, and felt significantly guiltier and after reading the prejudiced, White individual’s statement than participants in the prejudiced, Black condition. Further, the participants expressed less prejudice when exposed to the high-prejudiced White individual than when exposed to the low-prejudiced White individual, contrary to our predictions. These results demonstrate that exposure to extreme opinions of highprejudiced in-group members may actually reduce the expression of racism.