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Just say “No” (and mean it): Meaningful negation as a tool to modify automatic racial prejudice

Johnson, India R.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250543992

Abstract Details

2009, Master of Arts, Ohio State University, Psychology.
The present research examines whether negation training can successfully reduce the automatic activation of racial prejudice. A pilot study showed that simply responding “no” when presented with unfavorable traits about African Americans was not effective in reducing automatic prejudice, but responding with a more meaningful “That’s wrong” was successful. To further explore this finding, in Study 1, participants were trained to either meaningfully negate prejudice-consistent information or to meaningfully negate prejudice-inconsistent information, and completed an evaluative priming measure of racial prejudice before and after training. Consistent with the Meta-cognitive Model (MCM; Petty, Briñol, & DeMarree, 2007) of attitudes, participants who engaged in meaningful negation of prejudice-consistent information significantly reduced their levels of automatic racial prejudice relative to those who negated prejudice-inconsistent information. Furthermore, in Study 2 this effect was moderated by participant’s motive to control for prejudiced reactions (MCPR), such that those participants who were high in MCPR demonstrated the greatest observed changes in racial prejudice from time 1 to time 2, relative to those participants low in MCPR. Contrary to recent research suggesting that negation training is an ineffective means to reduce automatic racial prejudice, the present research suggests that negation can indeed be a useful tool when the negation is meaningful.
Richard Petty, PhD (Advisor)
Russell Fazio, PhD (Committee Member)
Lisa Libby, PhD (Committee Member)
86 p.
Psychology
stereotyping; prejudice; negation training

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Johnson, I. R. (2009). Just say “No” (and mean it): Meaningful negation as a tool to modify automatic racial prejudice [Master's thesis, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250543992

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Johnson, India. Just say “No” (and mean it): Meaningful negation as a tool to modify automatic racial prejudice. 2009. Ohio State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250543992.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Johnson, India. "Just say “No” (and mean it): Meaningful negation as a tool to modify automatic racial prejudice." Master's thesis, Ohio State University, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1250543992

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1250543992
518
© 2009, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.