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To confront or not to confront: non‐targets' evaluations of and responses to racist comments
Author(s) -
Dickter Cheryl L.,
Newton Virginia A.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/jasp.12022
Subject(s) - psychology , situational ethics , social psychology
The current studies explore situational and individual factors affecting non‐target perceivers' reactions and behavior following a racist comment, focusing on verbal confronting behavior. Two studies were conducted in which participants reported about recent situations in which they witnessed a racist comment that was not directed specifically at their own racial group. Results indicated that only one third of participants directly confronted the commenter. Strength of verbal confrontation was predicted by affective reactions and judgments of the offensiveness of the prejudicial comment. Analyses also revealed that strength of confrontation for females was predicted by the experience of negative emotions, but that males confronted more with stronger ratings of the offensiveness of the racist remarks. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.