Abstract
Because hostile outgroup members have been a recurrent source of danger, self-protective motivation leads people to display psychological processes that reduce vulnerability to outgroup threats. The current research examines the consequences of self-protective motivation for intergroup behavior. The current research provides evidence that self-protective motivation causes individuals to automatically avoid heuristically threatening outgroup members. Across two studies, priming self-protective motivation led White participants to display faster avoidance behaviors when presented with images of Black individuals (members of an outgroup culturally stereotyped as violent) than White individuals (members of the ingroup) and Asian individuals (members of an outgroup not stereotyped as violent). This research sheds light on the way in which evolved mechanisms interact with cultural cognitions to shape intergroup behavior.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 726-735 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | Evolution and Human Behavior |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 2012 |
Funding
This work was partially supported by the National Science Foundation grant BCS-0544598 awarded to the fourth author and grant 0842620 awarded to the third author.
Keywords
- Avoidance
- Intergroup processes
- Self-protection
- Stereotypes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
- Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)