Reactions to a black professional: Motivated inhibition and activation of conflicting stereotypes

The motivation to form a particular impression of an individual can prompt the inhibition of applicable stereotypes that contradict one's desired impr ession and the activation and application of stereotypes that support it. P articipants, especially those high in prejudice, inhibited the Black stereo type when motivated to esteem a Black individual (because he had praised th em). Participants motivated to esteem a Black doctor also activated the doc tor stereotype. In contrast, participants motivated to disparage a Black do ctor (because he had criticized them) inhibited the doctor stereotype. Part icipants motivated to disparage a Black individual also applied the Black s tereotype to him, rating him as relatively incompetent. All these effects w ere driven by the self-protective motives of recipients of feedback from Bl ack evaluators; detached observers showed no such effects.