Preconsciously controlling stereotyping: Implicitly activated egalitarian coals prevent the activation of stereotypes

The current research showed that individuals with chronic egalitarian goals did not have the cultural stereotype for the group African Americans activ ated when exposed to a picture of an African American. These individuals di d show increased accessibility for words related to egalitarianism upon see ing a photograph of an African American. Participants were primed over a se ries of trials with Caucasian or African American faces. Primes were follow ed after 200 ms by words. In Experiment 1, a pronunciation task, participan ts were to speak the word aloud into a microphone. The words were either st ereotype relevant or stereotype irrelevant. Individuals without chronic ega litarian goals pronounced stereotype relevant (but not stereotype irrelevan t) words faster when they followed stereotypic primes. Chronic egalitarians did not differ in their response times as a function of either word type o r prime type: no activation of the stereotype was evidenced. Experiment 2 w as a lexical decision task, and words were either related to egalitarianism or were positive words irrelevant to egalitarianism. Chronic egalitarians pronounced egalitarian-relevant (but not egalitarian-irrelevant) words fast er when they followed stereotypic primes. Nonchronics did not differ in the ir response times as a function of either word type or prime type. Stereoty pe control in Experiment 1 and goal activation in Experiment 2 was implicit and preconscious because responses were made at speeds where conscious con trol is not possible.