24 research outputs found
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The Elephant in the Room: Using Humor to Acknowledge One's Stigmatized Identity and Reduce Prejudice
No full textThe Target Empowerment Model (TEM; Stone, Whitehead, Schmader, & Focella, 2011) advocates that targets can be strong sources of prejudice reduction if they implement a combination of strategies designed to reduce threat and encourage the perceiver to more actively process information about the target and his or her group. Solely using blatant strategies (those that require the perceiver to explicitly process the target's persuasive message) can create backlash against the target (Czopp & Monteith, 2003). In contrast, subtle strategies, (strategies that do not call attention to the perceiver's bias), such as asking self-affirming questions (Steele, 1988), can be more effective in creating a smooth interaction but might only provide the target with a brief respite from bias. Following the logic of the TEM, humor may allow stigmatized targets to subtly address their group membership, put perceivers at ease, and reduce the bias that may be directed against them. This research examines how a target of prejudice can successfully reduce bias directed against him when he uses humor to acknowledge his, potentially threatening, group membership. Using a getting-acquainted task, three experiments tested the hypothesis that using humor that acknowledges the target's stigmatized group membership would put perceivers at ease, thereby increasing liking for the target. Experiment 1 showed that following a getting-acquainted exercise, highly prejudiced perceivers reported significantly greater liking for an Arab American target whose humor also acknowledged stereotypes of his group, compared to a target who told a joke that did not include his ethnic background, and compared to a target who did not use humor at all. Experiment 2 conceptually replicated Experiment 1 and revealed that the effectiveness of the ethnicity-related joke was mediated by how much the joke put highly prejudiced perceivers at ease. Experiment 3 conceptually replicated Experiments 1 and 2 and provided evidence that, unlike disparagement humor, which denigrates the outgroup, humor that acknowledges the target's outgroup membership increases liking toward the target without increasing prejudice toward the group. Taken together, these studies show that using humor that acknowledges the target's stigmatized group membership puts perceivers at ease, thereby increasing liking for the outgroup target
Thanks for asking: Self-affirming questions reduce backlash when stigmatized targets confront prejudice
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Encouraging perspective taking: Using narrative writing to induce empathy for others engaging in negative health behaviors
No full textSocietal expectations of self-care and responsible actions toward others may produce bias against those who engage in perceived self-harming behavior. This is especially true for health professionals, who have dedicated themselves to helping reduce the burden of illness and suffering. Research has shown that writing narratives can increase perspective taking and empathy toward other people, which may engender more positive attitudes. Two studies examined whether creating a fictional narrative about a woman who smokes cigarettes while pregnant could increase positive attitudes toward the woman who smokes and reduce the internal attributions made for her behavior. Across both experiments, the narrative writing intervention increased participants’ empathy and perspective taking, evoked more positive attitudes toward a woman who smokes cigarettes while pregnant, and increased external attributions for her behavior. This work supports our hypothesis that narrative writing would be an efficacious intervention promoting attitude change toward patients who engage in unhealthy, and often contentious, behaviors. This work also suggests that narrative writing could be a useful intervention for medical professionals and policy makers leading to more informed policy or treatment recommendations, encouraging empathy for patients, and engendering a stronger consideration of how external forces can play a role in someone’s seemingly irresponsible behavior.</div
