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Examining the role of psychological inflexibility, perspective taking, and empathic concern in generalized prejudice
Author(s) -
Levin Michael E.,
Luoma Jason B.,
Vilardaga Roger,
Lillis Jason,
Nobles Richard,
Hayes Steven C.
Publication year - 2016
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.12355
Subject(s) - prejudice (legal term) , psychology , social connectedness , empathy , perspective (graphical) , social psychology , psychological intervention , flexibility (engineering) , personality , statistics , mathematics , artificial intelligence , psychiatry , computer science
Research to‐date on generalized prejudice has focused primarily on personality factors. Further work is needed identifying manipulable variables that directly inform antiprejudice interventions. This study examined three such variables: empathic concern, perspective taking, and psychological inflexibility/flexibility with prejudiced thoughts, as a test of the flexible connectedness model. A sample of 604 undergraduate students completed online surveys. A model indicated prejudice measures loaded onto a latent variable of generalized prejudice. In a second model, psychological inflexibility, flexibility, empathic concern, and perspective taking were all significant, independent predictors of generalized prejudice. Psychological inflexibility also predicted prejudice above and beyond personality and general inflexibility variables. Results suggest the three components of the flexible connectedness model may be important targets for prejudice interventions.