Preconsciously Controlling Stereotyping: Implicitly Activated Egalitarian Goals Prevent the Activation of Stereotypes

The current research showed that individuals with chronic egalitarian goals did not have the cultural stereotype for the group African Americans activated when exposed to a picture of an African American. These individuals did show increased accessibility for words related to egalitarianism upon seeing a photograph of an African American. Participants were primed over a series of trials with Caucasian or African American faces. Primes were followed after 200 ms by words. In Experiment 1, a pronunciation task, participants were to speak the word aloud into a microphone. The words were either stereotype relevant or stereotype irrelevant. Individuals without chronic egalitarian goals pronounced stereotype relevant (but not stereotype irrelevant) words faster when they followed stereotypic primes. Chronic egalitarians did not differ in their response times as a function of either word type or prime type: no activation of the stereotype was evidenced. Experiment 2 was a lexical decision task, and words were either related to egalitarianism or were positive words irrelevant to egalitarianism. Chronic egalitarians pronounced egalitarian-relevant (but not egalitarian-irrelevant) words faster when they followed stereotypic primes. Nonchronics did not differ in their response times as a function of either word type or prime type. Stereotype control in Experiment 1 and goal activation in Experiment 2 was implicit and preconscious because responses were made at speeds where conscious control is not possible. Every event has certain marks that serve as a cue to bring the category of prejudgment into action. A person with dark brown skin will activate whatever concept of Negro is dominant in our mind.—Allport (1954, p. 21)