Reducing implicit racial preferences: A comparative investigation of 17 interventions

Abstract [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 143(4) of Journal of Experimental Psychology: General (see record 2014-29995-001). The Methods section did not mention an exploratory measure that was included in Study 4 but was not analyzed. The information is provided. The article also includes discrepancies in the ranking of interventions between the first two paragraphs in General Discussion and Figure 1. Figure 1 was correct; the General Discussion was not. Revised text provides the corrected rankings and analyses to include data from Study 4.] Many methods for reducing implicit prejudice have been identified, but little is known about their relative effectiveness. We held a research contest to experimentally compare interventions for reducing the expression of implicit racial prejudice. Teams submitted 17 interventions that were tested an average of 3.70 times each in 4 studies (total N = 17,021), with rules for revising interventions between studies. Eight of 17 interventions were effective at reducing implicit preferences for Whites compared with Blacks, particularly ones that provided experience with counterstereotypical exemplars, used evaluative conditioning methods, and provided strategies to override biases. The other 9 interventions were ineffective, particularly ones that engaged participants with others’ perspectives, asked participants to consider egalitarian values, or induced a positive emotion. The most potent interventions were ones that invoked high self-involvement or linked Black people with positivity and White people with negativity. No intervention consistently reduced explicit racial preferences. Furthermore, intervention effectiveness only weakly extended to implicit preferences for Asians and Hispanics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved