THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL NORM ACTIVATION ON THE EXPRESSION OF OPINIONS CONCERNING GAY MEN AND BLACKS

The influence of social norm activation on the expression of opinions concerning gay men (Experiment 1) and Blacks (Experiment 2) was explor ed. In both experiments, participants reported their opinions after he aring a confederate give prejudiced or nonprejudiced opinions (making a prejudiced or nonprejudiced norm salient) or simply in the presence of a confederate. Results showed that participants in both experiments reported less prejudiced opinions after a nonprejudiced norm was made salient, relative to the control condition. Activation of a prejudice d norm did not have a significant effect, relative to the control cond ition. Furthermore, the powerful effect of activating the nonprejudice d social norm was observed regardless of participants' prejudice level . Results are consistent with the notion that, in contemporary society , the social norm opposing prejudice is stronger than the norm favorin g prejudice.