The Influence of the Expression of Subtle and Blatant Sexual Prejudice on Personal Prejudice and Identification With the Expresser

ABSTRACT

Although the negative consequences of subtle and blatant prejudice for the targets of prejudice are clear in the psychological literature, the impact of exposure to subtle and blatant prejudice on non-targets remains unclear. The current work examines how exposure to blatant and subtle sexual prejudice affects non-targets’ personal endorsement of prejudice and their identification with the prejudice expresser. Results suggest that relative to exposure to blatant or neutral expressions of prejudice, exposure to subtle prejudice increased prejudice levels. Individuals were also more likely to distance from the prejudice expresser when exposed to blatant compared to subtle prejudice. The implications are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Black sheep effect
• blatant prejudice
• group identification
• prejudice expression
• sexual prejudice
• social identity theory
• subtle prejudice

Acknowledgment

We thank T. Joseph Alesi for his assistance with data collection.

Notes

1. Consistent with prior research, the ingroup/outgroup manipulation involved an own versus other university distinction (cf. Crisp et al., 2004; Rothgerber, 1997; Smurda et al., 2006). This manipulation has been shown to be successful on college students in a university setting, as it is a salient group identity. This particular distinction also minimizes the risk of confounds that might arise as a function of known stereotypes associated with pre-existing social groups such as racial, ethnic, or gender.

2. Importantly, collapsing across conditions, initial levels of prejudice (M = 2.03, SD = .87) did not differ significantly from levels of prejudice at the posttest (M = 2.00, SD = .91), t < 1.

3. To examine the possibility that initial prejudice might interact with the type of prejudice exposure to predict subsequent prejudice levels (i.e., high prejudiced individuals become more prejudiced following exposure to subtle prejudice, whereas low prejudiced individuals are not affected by subtle prejudice), a regression analysis was conducted. Results revealed that there was not a significant interaction between initial prejudice and type of prejudice exposure, ruling out this possibility.