Using an egalitarian social norms message to improve attitudes toward diversity in an academic context: examining intended and unintended effects of source and recipient gender

Abstract

Social psychologists have leveraged social norms messaging about prejudice to improve social climates. Less research, however, has explored how social identities of message sources and recipients (e.g., gender) influence receptivity to these messages. Testing for the effects of source and recipient social identity on message receptivity is not just of theoretical importance, but also has practical implications for who can effectively deliver such messages and whether such messages have unintended negative consequences for disadvantaged group members. In the present research, an experimental design explored whether the effectiveness of an egalitarian social norms message (compared to a control message) depended on source gender, recipient gender, and their interaction, as well as whether the egalitarian social norms message had unintended negative consequences for participants. Results of an experiment with undergraduate participants (N = 434) showed that receiving an egalitarian social norms message (compared to a control message) resulted in more positive diversity attitudes and stronger intentions to confront prejudice, and these effects did not depend on source gender. The egalitarian social norms message, compared to the control message, did not have detrimental effects on members of socially disadvantaged groups, and was evaluated as more beneficial for social climate. Implications for intervention are discussed.