Jenessa Shapiro: UCLA Department of Psychology

Conformity to a perceived norm is a common strategy used to gain the approval of one’s interaction partners. Identifying a group norm is ordinarily relatively simple. However, this task may be especially difficult when the norm is held by a group to which one does not belong, as is the case in intergroup interactions. In contemporary American society, Whites tend to believe that norms condemning public expressions of racial prejudices are pervasive (e.g., Dovidio & Gaertner, 1986). In contrast, Black Americans tend to view normative White behavior as prejudicial against themselves and other minority groups (e.g., Neimann, Jennings, Rozelle, Baxter, & Sullivan, 1994). The present research examined some ironic implications of this divergent perception of White prejudice-relevant norms. In one study, when evaluations of a Native American job candidate were to be made public to an unfamiliar group of White males upon whom participants were dependent, White men expressed less prejudice whereas Black men expressed greater prejudice, relative to when these responses remained private. In contrast, White and Black females expressed no prejudice when their evaluations were to be public to White females, although Black females expressed generally more favorable judgments of both White and Native American candidates. Follow-up studies support the hypothesis that differential inferences about White prejudice norms underlie this pattern of findings: The public judgments made by Black males (compensatory conformity) and Black females (compensatory pleasantness) can be seen as strategies aimed at reducing the likelihood that they themselves will be discriminated against in an intergroup interaction.