ABSTRACT
Self-enhancement may exacerbate ingroup favoritism. What if, rather than self-enhancement, individuals focused on enhancing others? Could this reduce prejudice? Three studies tested the impact of self-enhancement versus ‘other-enhancement’ on prejudice. In Study 1 (N=95), a repeated measures design showed that participants demonstrated less implicit bias after reflecting on another person’s positive traits relative to their own. In Study 2 (N=169), participants who reflected on an outgroup strength showed less racism than those who reflected on an ingroup strength and those in a comparison condition. In Study 3 (N=380), other-enhancement negatively linked to racism and sexism, whereas self-enhancement did not. Additionally, Study 3 examined an antecedent of other-enhancement – humility. We discuss the importance of enhancing others in reducing prejudice.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. We tested whether order of presentation of the task affected implicit bias. We did not find an order effect on implicit bias in either the self-enhancement or other-enhancement condition (F=.343 and F=.568, respectively).
2. We also recalculated this analysis with non-white participants (including two Black, two East Asian, and two South Asian participants) removed, since the IAT measured white vs. Black preference. This did not change the pattern or significance of results, F(1, 81)=23.304, p<.0001, ηp2= .223 (for affect), and F(1, 81)=8.301, p=.005, ηp2= .093 (for race bias).
3. Although we tested two models – one for each outcome (racism and sexism), we present them together here for ease of interpretation. Note that estimates of the links between the predictors and mediators were identical across models.