Implicit Motivation to Control Prejudice Moderates the Effect of Cognitive Depletion on Unintended Discrimination

Abstract

The role of Implicit Motivation to Control Prejudice (IMCP) in moderating the effect of resource depletion on spontaneous discriminatory behavior was examined. Cognitive resource depletion was manipulated by having participants solve either difficult or easy anagrams. A “Shooter Task” measuring unintended racial discriminatory behavior followed. Participants then reported their subjective experiences in the task. Finally, IMCP and an implicit race-weapons stereotype were measured, both using Go/No-go Association Tasks (GNATs). IMCP moderated the effect of depletion on discriminatory behavior: Depletion resulted in more racial bias in the Shooter Task only for those who scored low in our measure of IMCP, while high IMCP participants performed comparably in both the low and high depletion conditions.