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Stronger Prejudices Are Associated With Decreased Model-Based Control.
Miriam Sebold1,2, Hao Chen3, Aleyna Önal1
1Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.
Frontiers in Psychology
|January 24, 2022
Summary
Stronger blatant prejudices correlate with habitual decision-making, not controlled reactions. This suggests interventions targeting automatic biases may reduce prejudice against minorities.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Social Psychology
- Computational Neuroscience
Background:
- Prejudices are habitual negative evaluations resistant to contrary evidence.
- Strong prejudices may involve automatic over controlled cognitive processes.
- Individual differences exist in habitual (model-free) versus deliberative (model-based) decision-making.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate the relationship between prejudice and decision-making strategies.
- Examine if blatant prejudice is linked to habitual or model-based control.
- Determine if decision-making processes differ for blatant versus subtle prejudices.
Main Methods:
- 127 participants completed the two Step task.
- Participants also completed blatant and subtle prejudice scales.
- Computational modeling analyzed choices and reaction times.
Main Results:
- Stronger blatant prejudice was associated with a shift away from model-based decision control.
- No significant association was found between decision-making processes and subtle prejudices.
- Habitual decision-making showed a relative dominance in individuals with high blatant prejudice.
Conclusions:
- Blatant prejudice toward minorities is linked to a dominance of habitual decision-making.
- These findings have implications for prejudice reduction interventions.
- Targeting automatic biases may be key to changing societal prejudices.
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