Does a multicultural perspective shape non-biased minds?: the moderating role of outgroup threat

Abstract

The multicultural perspective is an ideological orientation that values the recognition and inclusion of diverse ethnic and cultural groups as sources of identity and culture that are favorable to society, because they promote positive intergroup relations and social equality. However, there are conditions that moderate the constructive effects such a perspective potentially yields. In this research, we used experimental procedures to examine the effects of a multicultural perspective on levels of implicit and explicit prejudice aimed at Gitanos (Spanish Roma). In Study 1, we manipulated the content of a newspaper article to generate three conditions, which were (a) the multicultural perspective, (b) the use of counter‐stereotypical exemplars, and (c) the control. In Study 2, we not only evaluated the effect of the manipulation of the multicultural perspective relative to the control, we also assessed the extent to which symbolic and realistic outgroup threats moderate the effect of a multicultural perspective on implicit prejudice. Results showed lower levels of implicit prejudice in the multicultural condition than in the control condition. The multicultural perspective effectively reduced implicit prejudice when the perceived threat was low, but yielded no such observable effect when the perceived threat was high.