Differences in Anglo and Asian Australians' explicit and implicit prejudice and the attenuation of their implicit in‐group bias

Abstract

Research has shown that not only are minority groups capable of possessing implicit and explicit prejudice but that the study of their attitudes provides unique insight into the nature of prejudice. The current study found that in an Australian context, Asian participants displayed significantly less implicit prejudice and significantly greater explicit prejudice than their Anglo counterparts. This finding provided further evidence of the dissociation of explicit and implicit attitudes, specifically in regard to their predication. In addition, the attenuation of the implicit prejudice of both the Anglo majority and Asian minority group members was investigated. Brief exposure to positive out‐group exemplars was found to attenuate the implicit bias of Asian but not Anglo participants, suggesting that this technique may be contingent upon more fundamental prejudice‐reducing measures and providing further support that the undermining of implicit biases requires long‐term, effortful processes.