Enhancing majority members' pro-diversity beliefs in small teams: The facilitating effect of self-anchoring

Ruth Van Veelen*, Sabine Otten, Nina Hansen

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Majority members often react negatively to efforts to stimulate diversity. An important reason for this is that in diverse groups, majority members' own group bond is typically based on perceived prototypicality, which serves to disregard those who are different. In the present research we investigate how majority members' pro-diversity beliefs may be enhanced, by experimentally manipulating how the self is cognitively defined in relation to a diverse group. Specifically, we hypothesize that majority members' focus on the personal self (i.e., selfanchoring) rather than the social self (i.e., self-stereotyping) when creating a group bond may facilitate their pro-diversity beliefs and positive attitudes toward minority members. In two experiments we manipulated self-anchoring and self-stereotyping via mindset priming among ethnic majority members in diverse teams. As expected, results showed that relative to self-stereotyping, majority members' self-anchoring enhanced pro-diversity beliefs and positive attitudes toward minority members.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3-11
Number of pages9
JournalExperimental Psychology
Volume61
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Attitudes
  • Majority
  • Pro-diversity beliefs
  • Self-anchoring
  • Self-stereotyping

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