How do we Perceive People who Admit their Biases?

In a new line of work, the SCIP Lab is investigating how people perceive those who are bias aware. Preliminary evidence (Perry, Skinner, & Wages, in prep) suggests that when an individual denies (compared to admits) their bias, people are more likely to believe that individual is less prejudiced. These results suggest that, even when the target’s level of prejudice is held constant, admitting bias may have negative social consequences. We are currently investigating the circumstances under which people do/do not derogate those who are bias aware, and the individual differences that predict when and why people derogate those who admit their prejudices.