Emotional reactions to a seemingly prejudiced response: The role of automatically activated racial attitudes and motivation to control prejudiced reactions

This study examined notional reactions to a televised Public service ad reg arding racial prejudice. The ad induces viewers to draw a seemingly prejudi cial inference about an African American man. Emotional reactions to the ad varied as a function of automatically activated racial attitudes and the t wo factors of the Motivation to Control Prejudiced Reactions Scale, all of which wee assessed 3 months prior to exposure to the ad. More positive raci al attitudes were associated with feelings of guilt in response to the ad. Individuals with higher scores on the concern with Acting Prejudiced factor of the motivation scale reported both greater guilt and greater agitation, whereas those with higher scores on the Restraint to Avoid Dispute factor experienced agitation but not guilt. The implications of the findings for p rejudice reduction efforts and the effectiveness of the Public service ad a s a social influence strategy are discussed.