The Active Control of Prejudice: Unpacking the Intentions Guiding Control Efforts

To date, there is little direct evidence that people who are motivated to respond without prejudice actively work to reduce their prejudice. The authors explored people's efforts to control prejudice for an upcoming interracial interaction. They proposed that people who were motivated to respond without prejudice should exert effort to control prejudice but that their efforts should reflect the intentions underlying their motivation. Behavioral evidence was provided across 3 studies supporting the contention that external motivation to respond without prejudice results in the intention to hide prejudice and that externally motivated people actively work to reduce detectable prejudice. In contrast, internal motivation gives rise to the intention to be free of prejudice, and internally motivated people actively work to eliminate any form of prejudice whether or not it would be apparent to others. The short- and long-term implications of these differential intentions are discussed.