Stereotypes as justifications of prejudice
We demonstrate that stereotypes and threat can serve as justification of prejudice, rather than forming the source of the prejudice itself.
Background
Does threat cause prejudice, or does prejudice cause threat?
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This distinction is critical to the goal of reducing prejudice because a prejudice-causes-threat view shifts the focus away from the characteristics of the target group and onto the prejudiced perceiver. For example, take the stereotype that Black men are dangerous. A threat-causes-prejudice view assumes that something about “them” (the outgroup) makes them dangerous, whereas a prejudice-causes-threat view suggests that something about “us” (the ingroup) makes us see them that way.
Several prominent theories of prejudice suggest that threat causes prejudice. Our work turns this idea on its head. We use experimental methods to demonstrate that prejudice can cause stereotypes and threat perception, rather than the other way around. Consistent with the justification-suppression-model of prejudice, our research shows that when people feel prejudice toward a group, they can justify their prejudice by perceiving the group as threatening or by endorsing negative stereotypes. Stereotypes and threat can serve as justification of prejudice, rather than forming the source of the prejudice itself.
Impact
Our work highlights how threat perception is a subjective process, rather than a fact. While this new understanding of prejudice is surely theoretically important, its application can have life and death consequences.
People may be unaware or unwilling to admit they hold certain prejudices. Nevertheless, my work demonstrates that unrecognized prejudice can cause people to perceive members of marginalized groups as threatening, even in the absence of actual threat.