The Social Costs of Extrinsic Relative to Intrinsic Goal Pursuits: Their Relation With Social Dominance and Racial and Ethnic Prejudice

Self-determination theory's distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic goal pursuits offers a possible explanation for ethnic and racial prejudice. Because extrinsic relative to intrinsic goal pursuits (E/I) stimulate interpersonal competition, they were expected to predict social dominance orientation (SDO), which, in turn, would predict racial and ethnic prejudice. Results of a first cross-sectional study showed that E/I goal pursuits are positively associated with prejudice and that SDO partially mediates this association. In a second longitudinal study, we replicated these results. In addition, however, we found evidence for a reciprocal relationship between E/I goal pursuit and SDO. Moreover, both E/I goal pursuit and SDO had an independent effect on increases in prejudice. Implications of these findings are discussed.