Abstract
Following a task that ostensibly revealed implicit racism or sexism, participants were confronted about their bias. The confronter's race and gender were manipulated to test whether group membership (whether one is part of the group experiencing prejudice) determined confrontation effectiveness. Results showed that the confrontation of racism met with greater acceptance when performed by a White than a Black confronter, indicating that group membership drives confrontation impact. Further, tests of two possible mediational accounts showed mediation by perceptions of the Black confronter as a complainer. Participants trivialized the confrontation concerning sexism, underscoring the need to strengthen social norms against sexism. Implications for engaging in confrontation are discussed.
Notes
Authors contributed equally. Author order is alphabetical.
1 There were not enough non-Black participants to consider ethnicity as a factor in analyses. Results held the same pattern when analyzing only White participants as when non-Blacks were also included.
2 One outlier more than 3 SD from the mean of the acceptance index was removed.