When tolerance leads to intolerance: accessibility effects on social judgment.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Attitude Research

Background:

• Subtle priming can influence judgments and behavior.
• Social comparison theory explains how individuals evaluate themselves by comparing to others.
• Understanding prejudice reduction requires examining automatic social processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of unobtrusively primed tolerance constructs on subsequent judgments.
• To explore the role of social comparison processes in assimilation and contrast effects.
• To examine how comparison standards moderate the effects of priming on prejudice.

Main Methods:

• Participants were primed with concepts related to tolerance (e.g., "tolerant," "nonprejudiced").
• Judgments of an ambiguous behavioral description were assessed.
• Study 3 manipulated the presence and type (explicit vs. implicit) of a social comparison standard.

Main Results:

• Contrary to expectations, priming tolerance led to contrast effects in behavioral judgments (Studies 1 & 2).
• An implicit comparison standard resulted in participants evaluating the target behavior as more intolerant compared to explicit or no comparison standards (Study 3).

Conclusions:

• Automatic social comparison processes can moderate assimilation and contrast effects.
• The findings highlight the complex interplay between priming, social comparison, and prejudice.
• Implicit comparison standards may play a significant role in perceptions of intolerance and prejudice reduction.