Disconfirming intergroup evaluations: Asymmetric effects for in-groups and out-groups

The authors examined whether a fundamental bias in the way people process information has implications for efforts to improve intergroup relations. The authors exposed participants to information about their own social category and a different social category that was either positive or negative in connotation. To examine what effect this information would have on participants' attitudes toward their own group and the other group, the authors measured both explicit and implicit evaluations before and after exposure. The findings suggest that, at a preconscious level, exposure to negative information affects participants' attitudes toward their own group, but that positive information has a negligible impact on attitudes toward other groups. The authors found an opposite pattern for explicit (conscious) evaluations. These asymmetries are consistent with cognitive and motivational theory on intergroup relations and may have important implications for efforts to reduce prejudice.