Changing perceived social consensus shifts racial prejudice strongly and persistently

Evidence

Although Allport thought that the combined influence of extrafamilial pressure (e.g., peer groups, social institutions, and mass media) might sway prejudiced people’s opinions, he underestimated the power of social consensus as a force for change. Recent research suggests that changing the perception of social norms (to create consensus) can result in immediate and long-lasting changes in prejudice. Stangor, Sechrist, and Jost (2001a, 2001b) had White/European American students first indicate their beliefs about positive and negative stereotypes of African Americans, and then estimate the beliefs of fellow students at their university. One week later, they provided participants with (false) information indicating that, according to research, they had either underor over-estimated the prejudice of their peers. Because of a (bogus) “computer error,” the students were told their initial data had been lost and were asked to report their racial beliefs again. As expected, participants attitudes moved substantially in the direction of the bogus social consensus information – becoming either more positive or more negative toward African Americans depending on what the local consensus was said to be. These changes were strong and persisted for up to two weeks (Stangor et al., 2001b). … Follow-up work showed that people do not follow the social norms of just any group. Instead, it has to be a group that is meaningful to them; that is, of which they are (or aspire to be) a member, suggesting that these effects are based on conformity, rather than motivated simply by a desire to be accurate (Stangor et al., 2001b). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1915

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the Allport reassessment thread on prejudice-psychology claims — this empirically updates and challenges Allport’s weaker emphasis on consensus as a change force.
• QUESTION: Whether these consensus-driven attitude shifts reflect durable internalization or momentary conformity remains open given the two-week follow-up window.