Trait Inferences as a Function of Automatically Activated Racial Attitudes and Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions

Abstract

This study investigated how automatically activated racial attitudes and motivation to control prejudiced reactions contribute to the impressions formed of targets whose photos varied by race, gender, and occupation. In earlier sessions, participants completed Dunton and Fazio's (1997) Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions scale, and underwent a priming procedure (Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, & Williams, 1995) that provided an unobtrusive estimate of their automatically activated racial attitudes. In the final session, participants provided trait ratings of a number of target photos. Automatically activated racial attitudes were related to the trait inferences participants made of Blacks compared to matched Whites. However, this effect was moderated by motivation to control prejudiced reactions. Among the more motivated, both those with more negative and those with more positive attitudes displayed evidence of correction for their attitudes. This discussion focuses on the ways in which different kinds of motivation to control prejudiced reactions may manifest differently.