The current study investigates two questions: a) do positive self-affirmations influence the likelihood of individuals holding prejudicial and stereotypical beliefs? And b) are suggested self-concepts projected onto others who are often stereotyped? It is hypothesized that positive self-affirmations will result in reduced stereotypical and prejudice beliefs. It is also hypothesized that positive self-concepts (high intelligence) through suggestion will result in the projection of these concepts onto others that are often stereotyped, resulting in the belief that others are intelligent as well.

Method

Participants

200 undergraduate university students participated in this study in order to fulfill course credit for an introductory psychology course.

Procedure

Half of the participants received a bogus spatial orientation exercise to complete and were told that it was a test of intelligence. Upon completion of the task, they were all told that their score indicated that they were of very high intelligence. The remaining participants completed the same exercise, but were not told anything about the nature of the test, and were told nothing in regards to their score. All the participants then read a description of a typically stereotyped individual of an ethnic minority, and were asked to choose from a list of words the characteristics that are attributable to this individual. The list of words contained both positive and negative adjectives. The negative adjectives were words that were consistent with the stereotypes often held against the ethnic minority.

Results

The results of this study indicated that suggesting a positive self-affirmation to participants (high intelligence) caused them to attribute fewer negative stereotypical characteristics to another individual. Moreover, the presence of a positive message about themselves resulted in less prejudicial belief about others. There was a significant difference in the number of negative stereotype responses attributed by participants that received the self-affirming suggestion in comparison to those who did not. These...

These results are demonstrated in Figure 1.
Fig.1

The results also indicated that those participants that received the self-affirmation of high intelligence were significantly more likely than those who were not self-affirmed to attribute this positive characteristic to the stereotyped other in the study. These results are demonstrated in Figure 2.

Fig. 2

Discussion

Both hypotheses in this study were verified by the results. The findings suggest that the promotion of self-integrity through suggestion of a positive, self-affirming belief acts to reduce or diminish prejudicial belief of others. Furthermore, the self-concept targeted by the positive suggestion, which in this study was high intelligence, was in turn projected onto the target ethnic person in the study, who was attributed negative stereotypical characteristics by participants who were not self-affirmed. Previous research investigated the use of defensive projection, or the attribution of negative self-perceived traits onto others, but not positive ones. The findings of this study open the door to further research in this area. The results of this study hold important implications for parents, educators and clinicians who strive to reduce the rampancy of stereotypical and prejudicial beliefs in society.

Reference

Fein, S., Spencer, S. (1997). Prejudice as self-image maintenance: affirming the self through derogating others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 73(1), 31-44.

Govorun, O., Fuegen, K., Payne, B. (2006). Stereotypes focus defensive projection. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(6), 781-93.

Newman, L., Duff, K., Baumeister, R. (1997). A new look at defensive projection: thought suppression, accessibility, and biased person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72(5), 980-1001.

Seibt, B., Forster, J. (2004). Stereotype threat and performance: how self-stereotypes influence processing by inducing regulatory foci. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87(1), 38-56.