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Silent classrooms, naked emperors and the perpetuation of prejudice : pluralistic ignorance and its consequences through the lens of social metacognition
Publication . Ferreira, Maria do Rosário Correia e; Mata, André
Pluralistic ignorance in the prejudice domain can best be defined as the collective belief that a majority of other people hold more prejudiced attitudes than one does. The present work attempts to explain the mechanisms behind this phenomenon and connect it with the behavioural consequences that perpetuate prejudice. The Metacognitive Advantage Model postulates that those who explicitly state they are not prejudiced may have implicit negative attitudes, which creates a degree of attitudinal conflict that regulates the extent to which one projects their explicit attitudes whilst making inferences about others. Additionally, social norms may modulate the existence of attitudinal conflict, depending on how acceptable expressions of prejudice are. A first study was run to test this model and the role social norms play in it, as well as link attitudinal conflict and projection to the willingness to share ones’ attitudes in hypothetical conversations with strangers. The results show that, when prejudice is normatively not acceptable, people experience higher attitudinal conflict, project less their explicit attitudes and are less willing to share them. Moreover, an increase in values of conflict was predictive of a decrease in the projection of explicit attitudes and of a decrease in willingness to speak, as expected. The second study tested the model in a hypothetical public setting and evaluated the willingness to confront the author of a prejudiced remark and the perceived risk of facing social consequences in doing so. When prejudice was proscribed, higher conflict, lower projection and higher risk perceptions were present, though participants also reported a higher willingness to confront. Even so, higher conflict predicted lower projection, and lower projection predicted higher risk perception, which in turn led to a lower likelihood of confrontation. Methodological and theoretical implications are discussed, as well as the future research path these studies pave.
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Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
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Concurso para Financiamento de Projetos de Investigação Científica e Desenvolvimento Tecnológico em Todos os Domínios Científicos - 2020
Número da atribuição
PTDC/PSI-GER/7592/2020