Self-regulation and threat: Shifting tactics in the face of threatening stereotypes

Barnard College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Human beings are motivated to maintain their safety and security. This research investigates whether people who are concerned with safety and security are likely to use and respond to stereotypes implying danger or threat. According to the investigators, individuals who are motivated to maintain safety and security (i.e., those operating under what is termed a "prevention focus") process negative or threatening information differently from benign or positive information. These types of people are expected to seek out and pay more attention to stereotypical information implying danger and show greater automatic endorsement of stereotypes implying threat. These effects are expected to emerge when threat is perceived to be psychologically proximate (close in time or in location) rather than distant. Stereotypes that are seen as particularly threatening because they are psychologically close are expected to exert a strong influence on judgments and behavior of individuals concerned with safety. Interestingly, stereotypes that are unrelated to their primary concern (i.e., safety) are expected to be utilized less compared with people not concerned with safety. A series of experiments will be conducted in order to address the implications of this shift in evaluative and stereotypical judgments and tie this research to several issues of social importance. This project has the potential to transform thinking about stereotyping and motivation and the interplay between them. People must regularly confront threat. When certain social groups and their members are seen as threatening, people often react in a manner that is self-protective but is harmful to the members of that group and society more generally. This research will help us understand when and how people respond to groups that are seen as threats to safety and security. By understanding the underpinnings of support for public policies that serve to maintain safety and security, policy makers can establish effective policies while avoiding unintended negative social consequences that might arise in times of threat. Finally, this work includes female undergraduate students, as well as members of ethnic minority groups.