Despite a substantial decline in overt prejudice and discrimination, intergroup disparities persist. The research will test key hypotheses derived from a novel "cooperative contingencies" framework that can account for biased and discriminatory behavior among otherwise low prejudiced people. Shared group memberships enhance cooperation, which often provides a powerful instrumental incentive for individuals, regardless of prejudice level, to preferentially affiliate with ingroup over outgroup members. Critically, incentives to preferentially affiliate are likely to be contingent on the full set of cooperative affordances available in an environment. If shared group memberships afford the best available means of facilitating cooperation between individuals, people are likely to preferentially rely on ingroup members. However, when effective non-group based mechanisms for fostering and sustaining cooperation are present or when groups are not likely to enhance cooperation, individuals low (but not high) in prejudice are less likely to exhibit intergroup biases. This hypothesis is particularly important because it suggests that external social structures and institutions that facilitate cooperation among individuals (e.g., sanctions for non-cooperation, rule of law) may cause people to rely less on shared group memberships and thereby reduce intergroup bias.
Scientifically, this approach to understanding and reducing bias in favor of one's group is complementary to and advances on existing theories on intergroup relations. Importantly, it can account for a range of phenomena and generate predictions that extant approaches do not. This research is also directly relevant to a pressing societal problem. By focusing on the instrumental incentives that can drive bias among low-prejudiced people and examining the influence of situational aspects on these processes, this research promises to inform new interventions for reducing prejudice and discrimination. In addition to the sorts of educational and training programs that have been developed to combat such bias, leaders and policy-makers may also have a range of structural tools at their disposal. Scientifically-informed use of cooperation-enhancing social structures may provide a powerful means of reducing the biased choices that lead to wide-spread intergroup disparities. This project also includes extensive educational training and knowledge mobilization components. Graduate and undergraduate students will work closely with the researcher on all aspects of the research, and will have substantial presentation and publication opportunities. Research findings will be publicized in local and national media and presented in public lectures.
