Recalling ingroup privilege as outgroup disadvantage: Evidence for a privilege-reframing bias and tests of a potential mediator

Abstract

While inequality can be framed as disadvantage (e.g., “women earn less than men”) or as privilege (e.g., “men earn more than women”) in logically equivalent ways, disadvantage framing dominates discourses about inequality. The present research had two goals. First, we aimed to establish a privilege-reframing bias in recall of inequality information: the tendency to misremember ingroup privilege in terms of outgroup disadvantage. Since recipients likely reproduce the framing they recall best, this bias could (partially) explain the persistent dominance of disadvantage framing. Second, we tested a potential explanation for the privilege-reframing bias, namely to divert social identity threat. In nine online experiments (n = 1389, eight pre-registered), conducted across five inequality domains and in three languages, participants read an infographic about inequality framed either as ingroup privilege or as outgroup disadvantage and then performed a recall task. Integrative data analysis revealed a robust privilege-reframing bias, which is noteworthy given that inequality framing research often yields unstable and heterogeneous findings. However, there was no conclusive evidence that this bias was due to threat. We discuss alternative cognitive explanations for the privilege-reframing bias and their implications for research on (motivated) recall biases more generally. Regardless of the underlying mechanism, a better recall of disadvantage, compared to privilege framing perpetuates a problematic one-sidedness in discussions about inequality.