Reducing implicit prejudice by blurring intergroup boundaries

Hall, N. R., Crisp, R. J. and Suen, M. W. (2009) Reducing implicit prejudice by blurring intergroup boundaries. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 31 (3). pp. 244-254. ISSN 0197-3533 doi: 10.1080/01973530903058474

Abstract/Summary

In two experiments we examined whether and when blurring intergroup boundaries reduces implicit prejudice. In Experiment 1 we observed that when participants first completed a task in which they generated characteristics that overlapped between an ingroup and an outgroup they showed less implicit bias as measured by an Implicit Association Test. In Experiment 2 we found that the effectiveness of blurring intergroup boundaries for reducing implicit bias was moderated by pretask levels of ingroup identification. We discuss these findings in the context of extending differentiation-based interventions for reducing explicit bias to the domain of implicit attitudes.