People suppress prejudice only when aware their actions may look discriminatory

Evidence

Aversive racism theory stems from the idea that as concerns about being egalitarian have increased, people are far less likely to endorse explicit expressions of bias and prejudice (Dovidio, 2001). Over time prejudice and discrimination have become subtler and sometimes occur outside of conscious awareness (e.g., Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). Aversive racism theory also maintains that despite striving for egalitarian principles, many people still harbor negative feelings toward and thoughts about minority groups (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). Specifically, the theory posits that people will not express prejudice if they are aware of the potential for their actions to be perceived as discriminatory, but when they are unaware of the potential to express bias they often will act in discriminatory ways (Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986; Pearson, Dovidio, & Gaertner, 2009; Saucier, Miller, & Doucet, 2005). — Joseph Avery, Jim Sidanius, Joel Cooper, Gregory Davis, Amanda N., Bias in the Law, 862

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines aversive racism theory: bias that surfaces only outside conscious awareness of its detectability.
• SEED: Angle: distinguishing aversive racism from explicit bigotry reframes how modern bias operates and why anti-discrimination training often fails.
• XREF: connects to: Proving discrimination requires showing manifest acts, not just prejudiced officials’ beliefs — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 1691; Prejudice alone can drive endorsement of freedom-based justifications for rejecting bias accusations — Felix Danbold, Ivuoma N. Onyeador, and Miguel M. Unzueta, Dominant groups support digressive…, 36