Collaborative Research/RUI: Factors that Affect the Likelihood of Prejudice Confrontation

该研究项目将有助于了解人们在偏见对抗中面临的障碍，从而促进对减少偏见和污名化领域的理解。对于被污名化群体的成员来说，偏见仍然是一个重要而频繁的经历；对身体和心理健康都有重要影响。以往关于减少偏见的研究表明，减少偏见的一种有效方法是在偏见发生时面对它。偏见对抗不仅减少了随后的偏见表达，而且还赋予了偏见的受害者权力。尽管偏见对抗有这些积极的后果，但人们往往不愿面对他们所看到的偏见。了解预测人们是否会面对偏见的因素将有助于我们理解一个重要的社会心理现象。该项目还包括制定一项培训计划，教导人们如何克服对抗的障碍。这项研究建立在先前关于偏见对抗的知识基础上。第一组研究通过测量对伤害和不公正的感知（作为偏见类型、目标存在和证人反应的函数）来调查参与者对采取行动对抗偏见的紧迫性的判断。第二组研究测量了参与者对面对偏见的责任的感知，作为证人数量、目标存在和角色问责的函数。第三组也是最后一组研究考察了参与者是否会面对偏见作为对抗自我效能感和结果预期的函数。重要的是，这项研究可以为建立培训计划提供基础，以授权那些目睹偏见的人表达他们的反对意见，最终这些发现可能会推广并有助于减少其他不文明行为（例如，欺凌，戏弄）的发生。

This research project will advance understanding in the area of prejudice and stigma reduction by contributing to understanding the obstacles people face in prejudice confrontation. Prejudice remains a significant and frequent experience for members of stigmatized groups; one with important consequences for physical and psychological well-being. Previous research on prejudice reduction demonstrates that one effective way to decrease prejudice is to confront it when it occurs. Not only does prejudice confrontation reduce subsequent expressions of prejudice, but it also empowers victims of prejudice. Despite these positive consequences of prejudice confrontation, people often refrain from confronting the prejudice they witness. Understanding the factors that predict whether people will confront prejudice would benefit our understanding of an important social psychological phenomenon. The project also includes development of a training program to teach people how to overcome the obstacles to confrontation. This research builds on previous knowledge about prejudice confrontation. The first set of studies investigates participants' judgments about the urgency of taking action against prejudice by measuring perceptions of harm and injustice as a function of the type of prejudice, target presence, and witness reactions. The second set of studies measures participants' perceptions of responsibility for confronting prejudice as a function of the number of witnesses, target presence, and role accountability. The third and final set of studies examines whether participants confront prejudice as a function of perceptions of confrontation self-efficacy and outcome expectancies. Importantly, this research can provide a base from which to build training programs to empower those who witness prejudice to voice their disapproval, and ultimately these findings may generalize and be useful in attenuating the occurrence of other incivilities (e.g., bullying, teasing).