Motivation to Maintain a Nonprejudiced Identity

Abstract

Abstract. In the context of nationals’ attitudes toward immigrants, three studies investigated the moderating role of normative context and justification for prejudice on licensing effects. Justification for prejudice was either assessed (Studies 1 and 2) or experimentally induced (Study 3). The normative context (egalitarian vs. discriminatory) and the possibility to obtain (or not) credentials as a nonprejudiced person were manipulated in all studies. A licensing effect (i.e., greater prejudice in the credentials as compared to the no-credentials conditions) was observed only in the egalitarian norm condition when justification for prejudice was high. Thus, credentials appear to provide a way for establishing a normative self-image as nonprejudiced when justification for prejudice is high, which reduces conformity to an egalitarian norm.

Moral Credentials, Intergroup Attitudes, and Regulatory Focus Interactively Affect Support for Affirmative Action

“…Specifically, they suggest that the direction of the attitudes effect depends on motivational orientation. As such, they reinforce the notion that attitudes should be considered in interaction with other factors (Clot et al, 2016;Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2018).…”

“…These mixed findings suggest that the impact of initial attitudes might depend on other moderating factors. To the best of our knowledge, to date only two studies have investigated moderators of the effect of initial attitudes on self-licensing, namely the normative context (egalitarian vs. discriminatory;Falomir-Pichastor, Mugny, Frederic, Berent, & Lalot, 2018) and the nature of the initial behavior (freely chosen vs. mandatory; Clot, Grolleau, & Ibanez, 2016). Indeed, self-licensing was only observed amongst more prejudiced participants when an egalitarian norm was made salient (Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2018).…”

“…To the best of our knowledge, to date only two studies have investigated moderators of the effect of initial attitudes on self-licensing, namely the normative context (egalitarian vs. discriminatory;Falomir-Pichastor, Mugny, Frederic, Berent, & Lalot, 2018) and the nature of the initial behavior (freely chosen vs. mandatory; Clot, Grolleau, & Ibanez, 2016). Indeed, self-licensing was only observed amongst more prejudiced participants when an egalitarian norm was made salient (Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2018). In the same vein, uncommitted (less environmental-friendly) participants self-licensed after performing a freely chosen environmental-friendly behavior, while committed (more environmental-friendly) participants self-licensed after performing a mandatory environmental-friendly behavior (Clot et al, 2016).…”

“…According to the moral credits model, moral behavior translates into a currency that is stocked in a metaphorical bank account and used later on to purchase a right to deviate. Put differently, credentials only have value with respect to a normative social system that promotes some behaviors (see also Falomir-Pichastor et al, 2018). In contrast, credits depend more on the person's internal system of values and goals, and personal perception of desirable versus undesirable behavior.…”

Nonprofit Organizational Identification, Moral License, and Whiteness: An Experimental Study of the Effect of Nonprofit Work on the White Morality Myth

“…Organizational identification contextualizes moral license by setting normative expectations for workers. Falomir-Pichastor et al (2018) find that Swiss high school and college students were more likely to espouse egalitarian beliefs after being exposed to polling indicating that majorities of their peers also held egalitarian beliefs, but their support for equality fell away when researchers told them they received pro-egalitarian scores on a discrimination test. Also, there is some indication that racialization changes how people identify with nonprofit organizations.…”