Fear induction as a facilitator of implicit intergroup prejudice

Abstract

The current study examined the effects of fear, manipulated with ambient darkness, as a facilitator of implicit prejudice, and it’s relation to African Americans. Participants performed an evaluative priming task in either a light or dark room in which they were asked to categorize words as threatening or non-threatening as quickly as possible. The threatening words that were used were not meant to have any stereotypic association with either African Americans or European Americans, but rather, were threatening words in general. All words were preceded by a non-consciously presented Black or White male face, which served to prime any associations with threat. Results indicated that participants were quickest to categorize threatening words when they were preceded by a Black male face in the dark room. Results also indicated that participants were quickest to categorize threatening words when they were preceded by a White male face in the light room. The current findings suggest that emotion manipulations, such as threat induction, can facilitate one’s judgment of a group.