Alternative Facts: Belief Differences Lead to Differences in Moral Judgements of Stereotype Use

Abstract

Despite the moral, legal, and social problems caused by stereotyping, people continue to use and express stereotypes. Why might this occur, even among people who endorse moral norms against stereotyping, and even when the stereotype is widely considered immoral? Previous work suggests that this may be due to conflicting motivations, or unintentional influences (e.g. implicit associations). We propose an additional reason this could happen: people may think that they are merely using acceptable beliefs about groups, even while others view them as engaging in immoral stereotyping. This may lead people to see stereotyping as something that occurs mainly in other people, rather than themselves. Study 1 showed that in fact people do think stereotyping occurs more in others than themselves – potentially due to disagreements in what counts as immoral stereotyping. Study 2 showed that these disagreements exist: one person may view a group-based generalization as immoral while another thinks of it as acceptable. Furthermore, these differences could be explained by differences in people’s beliefs about a given statement (e.g. about how negative or overgeneralized it is). Overall, this research suggests that the use of problematic stereotypes may at times occur simply because people do not see the stereotype or belief as problematic. Implications for how to reduce problematic cases of stereotype use are discussed.