Abstract Thinking Reduces Conservatives’ Prejudice Against Stigmatized Groups

The “American Dilemma” is . . . the ever-raging conflict between, on the one hand, the valuations preserved on the general plane which we shall call the “American Creed,” where the American thinks, talks, and acts under the influence of high national and Christian precepts, and, on the other hand, the valuations on specific planes of individual and group living, where . . . consideration of community prestige and conformity; group prejudice against particular persons or types of people; and all sorts of miscellaneous wants, impulses, and habits dominate his outlook.

—Myrdal (1944, p. xliii) 

In his influential study of American race relations in the 1940s, Swedish economist Gunnar Myrdal identified a fundamental “American dilemma”—a conflict between two planes of existence in American society at that time. On the general, more abstract plane, the American Creed of fairness and equality was promoted and cherished. On the more concrete, day-to-day plane, however, many individuals in the 1940s overtly expressed biases and prejudice that conflicted with these abstract values.

Overt expressions of bias toward racial minorities are no longer tolerated as they were during the time of Myrdal's writings (Schuman, Steeh, Bobo, & Krysan, 1997), which perhaps has resolved, or at least diminished, the conflict between the societal treatment of racial out-groups and the abstract value of fairness. However, this conflict likely remains in many Americans’ attitudes toward certain individuals, such as gay men and lesbians and members of religious out-groups (e.g., atheists and Muslims), who are perceived as being nonnormative, or deviating from Judeo-Christian values, and thus are often the targets of overt discrimination (Edgell, Gerteis, & Hartmann, 2006; Hebl, Foster, Mannix, & Dovidio, 2002; Herek, 2000). This conflict may be especially pronounced among political conservatives, who advocate for Judeo-Christian values to have public and national precedence (Republican National Committee, n.d.).  We investigated how abstract and concrete mind-sets can differentially affect concerns about fairness and thereby influence prejudice toward members of nonnormative groups (specifically, gay men, lesbians, Muslims, and atheists) among political conservatives and liberals.

Members of nonnormative groups in the United States commonly face challenges—particularly from politically conservative people—to achieving equal rights and privileges. For example, gay men and lesbians are currently denied the right to marry in most states and face overt discrimination from employers, politicians, and religious leaders, especially those who are politically conservative (Herek, 2000). In a survey having a nationally representative sample (Nisbet & Shanahan, 2004), more than half of the respondents thought that the rights of Muslim Americans should be restricted, a trend that was largely driven by politically conservative and highly religious respondents. Public-opinion polls have also revealed an ideological divide with respect to the acceptance of atheists: In one recent poll, only 14% of Republicans (vs. 44% of Democrats) said they would be willing to vote for a well-qualified, party-nominated presidential candidate who was an atheist (Pew Research Center, 2007).

We propose that the discrepancy between the abstract value of fairness and a bias against certain nonnormative groups, a conflict that is more pronounced among political conservatives than among liberals, may be moderated by the mind-set that people adopt when thinking about these groups. In the present research, we used construal-level theory to examine how two different mind-sets (or “planes”)—abstract and concrete—might influence conservatives’ feelings toward nonnormative groups. A large body of research has shown that people can perceive objects, events, and individuals in either concrete (low-level) or abstract (high-level) terms (for a review, see Trope & Liberman, 2010; see also Vallacher & Wegner, 1989). These perspectives are called “construal levels” and are described in a body of research called “construal-level theory”. Construal level has a strong influence on people's judgments, attitudes, and behaviors, from feature perceptions and morality judgments to self-control and social perceptions (Eyal, Liberman, & Trope, 2008; Fujita, Trope, Liberman, & Levin-Sagi, 2006; Trope & Liberman, 2000).

In the research reported here, we investigated whether construal level can influence perceptions and attitudes toward not only objects, events, and individuals, but also groups (see also Levy, Freitas, & Salovey, 2002). We hypothesized that abstract thinking, insofar as it is related to Myrdal's (1944) “general plane,” should lead to a reduction of prejudice, particularly prejudice toward nonnormative out-groups, because people whose construal level is more abstract should be more likely to operate under the broad societal values of fairness and justice. This hypothesis is consistent with work by Eyal et al. (2008), who found that participants who thought abstractly rather than concretely were more likely to apply their moral principles in judgments of others’ actions. Additionally, Torelli and Kaikati (2009) demonstrated that values were a stronger predictor of judgments and behaviors when people were thinking more abstractly.

In three experiments, we investigated whether thinking abstractly (vs. concretely) can increase positive feelings toward nonnormative groups (gay men, lesbians, Muslims, and atheists)—groups that experience overt prejudice that is antithetical to the value of fairness, or the “American Creed.” Moreover, because more conservative individuals show greater explicit bias toward nonnormative groups and thus exhibit greater conflict between their concrete feelings about members of these groups and the more abstract principles of equality and fairness, we hypothesized that the predicted effect of abstract thinking on bias against nonnormative groups would be stronger for conservatives than for liberals. In our first two studies, we examined how construal level—either characteristic (Study 1) or induced (Study 2)—related to both conservatives’ and liberals’ explicit feelings toward a variety of social groups. In Study 3, we manipulated participants’ mind-sets and tested whether the societal value of fairness is indeed a mediator of the effects of construal level on bias.

Study 1

In Study 1, we investigated whether individual differences in mindset level (abstract vs. concrete), assessed with Vallacher and Wegner’s (1989) Behavioral Identification Form, were related to differences in prejudice toward nonnormative social groups. We measured feelings toward different social groups using feeling thermometers, which have been shown to be reliable and precise measures of feelings toward various groups (Alwin, 1997). Our focus was on participants’ feelings toward four nonnormative groups (gay men, lesbians, Muslims, and atheists), but we also assessed feelings toward racial-ethnic minority groups (Blacks, Latinos) and dominant groups (Whites, Christians). We predicted that more politically conservative participants would display more negative feelings toward the nonnormative groups, which would be in line with results from prior research (Nosek, Banaji, & Jost, 2009), but that this effect would be moderated by individual differences in mindset level. Specifically, we expected that conservatives would have less negative feelings toward nonnormative groups if they characteristically adopted a more abstract mind-set. We expected that mind-set would have no such effect on feelings toward racial-ethnic minority groups (because they are legally guaranteed equal rights and because the American Creed is more commonly perceived to apply to them than to nonnormative groups) or toward dominant groups.  Because liberals tend to support equal rights for non-normative groups, and thus should not experience a conflict between their abstract values and feelings toward these groups, we did not expect mind-set to affect their responses.

Method

Participants. Sixty-three participants (35 women) were recruited online and took part in this study in exchange for a chance to win a gift certificate.

Procedure. We assessed participants’ mind-sets using Vallacher and Wegner’s (1989) Behavioral Identification Form, which asks participants to make a dichotomous choices whether actions are best described in concrete or abstract terms. Participants were given ten different actions, such as “pushing a doorbell”, and then asked whether they were best described concretely (“moving a finger”) or abstractly (“seeing if someone is home”).  For each participant, we used the proportion of actions described as abstract (vs. concrete) as our measure of mind-set.

Participants then rated eight groups, using two feeling thermometers one assessing warmth and the other assessing liking. Participants were asked to using a sliding scale to indicate their feelings toward each group, on a range from 0 – 100. The warmth and liking ratings for each group were highly correlated, we therefore averaged the two ratings to create a score for feelings toward each group. Using this measure, we computed ratings for (a) nonnormative groups (lesbians, atheists, gay men, and Muslims), (b) racial-ethnic minority groups (Blacks and Latinos), and (c) dominant groups (Whites and Christians). Finally, participants responded to demographic questions and rated their political orientation on a scale from 1 (very liberal) to 6 (very conservative; see Jost, Federico, & Napier, 2009).

Results and Discussion

To test our main predictions, we conducted three linear regressions predicting feelings toward (a) nonnormative groups, (b) racial-ethnic minority groups, and (c) dominant groups; abstract mind-set (centered), political orientation (centered), and the interaction of political orientation and mind-set were entered as independent variables (for specific statistics, see appendix). As predicted, conservatives were less warm toward nonnormative groups than liberals (by about 7.5 points out of 100).  However, political orientation interacted with mindset level (abstract or concrete, see Fig. 1 below).  For liberals, there was no relationship between how abstractly they were thinking and their feelings toward nonnormative groups.  However, for conservatives, there was a significant relationship.  Conservatives who were thinking concretely felt less positively about nonnormative groups than conservatives who were thinking abstractly.   For conservatives, the difference between concrete and abstract thinkers was about 35 points out of 100 (see Fig 1 below).  Looking at it another way, among concrete thinkers we observed the predicted difference between liberals and conservative, such that concrete thinking liberals felt more positively toward nonnormative groups than concrete thinking conservatives.  Among abstract thinkers, there was no difference between liberals and conservatives in feelings toward nonnormative groups. As predicted, there was no interaction of political orientation and mindset level on feelings toward racial minorities or dominant groups.

The results from Study 1 are thus in line with our hypothesis that conservatives’ prejudice against nonnormative groups is reduced when they think abstractly as opposed to concretely. Indeed, there was no difference in bias at all between liberals and conservatives with abstract mind-sets. It does not seem to be the case that liberals are chronically more likely to think in abstract terms and that this accounts for their lower levels of prejudice. In fact, there was a relatively weak but reliable correlation between mind-set and political orientation, such that more conservative participants tended to endorse more abstract descriptions of actions on the Behavioral Identification Form^[1]. In our two next studies, we sought to replicate our results from Study 1 using established experimental manipulations of mindset level.

Study 2

In Study 2, we induced abstract or concrete mindsets via a why/how paradigm in which participants must give increasingly concrete (subordinate) or abstract (superordinate) reasons for engaging in a certain behavior (Freitas, Gollwitzer, & Trope, 2004; Fujita et al., 2006; Ledgerwood, Trope, & Chaiken, 2010). Participants were asked to think about the issue of maintaining good physical health and to explain either why they would do so (abstract construal) or how they would do so (concrete construal). We assessed participants’ political orientation and their feelings about the same nonnormative, racial-ethnic, and dominant groups that were used in Study 1. We predicted that more conservative participants would display less positive feelings toward nonnormative groups, but that this effect would be less pronounced in the abstract-construal condition than in the concrete-construal condition.

Method

Participants. Sixty-four participants (34 women) were recruited online and took part in this study in exchange for a chance to win a gift certificate.

Procedure. Participants reported their political orientation and were then randomly assigned to construal condition and asked to fill out a ladder questionnaire about good physical health. In the abstract condition, participants started at the bottom of the ladder and moved up, generating increasingly abstract (superordinate) answers to the question of why they would maintain good physical health; in the concrete condition, they moved down the ladder, generating increasingly concrete (subordinate) answers to the question of how they would maintain good physical health (Freitas et al., 2004; Fujita et al., 2006). Following this manipulation, participants used feeling thermometers to rate their feelings of warmth and liking toward the same eight groups used in Study 1. The warmth and liking ratings for each group were highly correlated, so we again averaged them to create measures of positive feelings toward nonnormative groups, racial-ethnic minorities, and dominant groups.

Results and Discussion

Results supported our findings from Study 1. We found that manipulating participants’ construal level had an impact on their feelings toward nonnormative groups, but only for those who were political conservative (see Fig. 2 below).  More specifically, liberal participants felt relatively positive toward nonnormative groups regardless of their mindset (abstract or concrete).  On the other hand, conservatives were more positive toward nonnormative groups when they were thinking abstractly (vs. concretely). Put another way, among the participants who were induced to think concretely, liberals felt more positive toward nonnormative groups than conservatives.  Among those who were induced to think abstractly, there was no difference between liberals and conservatives in their feelings toward nonnormative groups (for specific statistics, please see the appendix).

 

Results from our first two studies offer convergent support for the hypothesis that for politically conservative individuals, thinking with an abstract mind-set rather than a concrete mind-set can reduce expressed prejudice toward people who are viewed as somehow “deviant” from prototypical Americans. In both studies, there was no effect of construal level on feelings toward racial-ethnic minorities or feelings toward dominant groups. This finding is consistent with our conjecture that the endorsement of overt prejudice and discrimination toward nonnormative groups creates a dilemma by conflicting with the American ideal of promoting fairness and equality.

In our final study, we examined the process underlying the effects that emerged in our first two studies by manipulating construal level and assessing concerns about fairness as well as feelings toward nonnormative groups. We hypothesized that abstract thinking would bring the value of fairness to the forefront of participants’ minds and thereby reduce prejudice, particularly prejudice toward groups that are perceived as deviant and that are not consistently included in the American Creed of fairness for all.

Study 3

Past research has demonstrated that emphasizing moral ideals such as fairness can serve as a means of improving intergroup relations (Does, Derks, & Ellemers, 2011). We hypothesized that the effect of mindset on expressed prejudice that we found in our first two studies was due to a shift in the salience of central values. We reasoned that when thinking on an abstract (as opposed to concrete) level, people should be more likely to rely on broad-based moral principles such as fairness (Graham, Haidt, & Nosek, 2009). In Study 3, we tested this hypothesis by examining how construal level influenced participants’ concerns about fairness and whether shifts in the salience of values accounted for (i.e., mediated) changes in feelings toward nonnormative groups.

Method

Participants. One hundred sixty-eight participants (106 women) were recruited online and took part in this study in exchange for a chance to win a gift certificate.

Procedure. Participants completed a construal-level priming manipulation (developed by Fujita et al., 2006) in which they were randomly presented with 20 words, 5 at a time. Participants assigned to the concrete condition were asked to generate a subordinate exemplar for each word by answering the question, “An example of _______ is what?” They were told to fill in the blank with each of the words presented and then answer the question for that word. For example, if one of the words presented was dog, participants could answer “poodle” (a type or dog) or even “Odie” (a specific name for a dog). Participants in the abstract condition were asked to generate a superordinate category label for each word by answering the question “______ is an example of what?” (again, filling in the blank with each of the words presented). For example, if one of the words presented was dog, participants could answer “pet” or “animal.”

Participants responded to four items from the Moral Foundations Questionnaire (Graham et al., 2009) that assessed concerns about fairness (e.g., “Justice is the most important requirement for a society”). Participants used feeling thermometers to rate their feelings of warmth and liking toward the nonnormative groups, racial-ethnic minorities, and dominant groups. Finally, participants answered a variety of demographic questions, including an item measuring political orientation.

Results

As in the first two studies, the construal level manipulation on had an effect on conservatives. While the manipulation had no effect on liberals, conservatives who were induced to think abstractly rated their feelings toward the nonnormative groups about 10.5 points higher than conservatives induced to think concretely (see appendix for specific statistics).

We next tested whether differences in the salience of the moral value of fairness could statistically account for the relationship between construal level and positive feelings. We evaluated whether fairness caused  (i.e., mediated) the relationship between construal condition and positive feelings for conservative participants. The results support our predictions: Among conservatives, abstract (as opposed to concrete) thinking significantly increased endorsement of fairness, which had a significant direct effect on feelings toward the nonnormative groups. The indirect effect of construal level on positive feelings through fairness was significant^[2]; in other words, conservatives increased tolerance toward non-normative groups was due to their increased concerns about fairness when thinking abstractly as opposed to concretely.

Summary and Implications

Results from our three studies indicate that straightforward interventions aimed at changing people’s mindsets may be effective for improving their attitudes, at least temporarily, toward highly stigmatized social groups. Across three studies, we found that adopting an abstract mindset heightened conservatives’ tolerance for groups that are perceived as deviating from Judeo-Christian values (gay men, lesbians, Muslims, and atheists). Among participants who adopted a concrete mindset, conservatives were less tolerant of these nonnormative groups than liberals were, but political orientation did not have a reliable effect on tolerance among participants who adopted an abstract mindset. Attitudes toward racial out-groups and dominant groups (e.g., Whites, Christians) were unaffected by construal level.

We found that the effect of abstract thinking on prejudice was mediated by an increase in concerns about fairness. This research suggests that abstract thinking can reduce partisan differences insofar as everyone—conservatives and liberals alike—cares about fairness on some level. Thus, although many Americans may react to gay men and lesbians with disgust (Inbar, Pizarro, Knobe & Bloom, 2009) or view atheists and Muslims as socially, or even physically, threatening (Edgell et al., 2006), enduring concerns about justice and fairness can perhaps mitigate discriminatory responses toward members of these groups.

Though we did not conduct this research with the courtroom in mind, we believe this research could have some important applications in that realm. It suggests that when jurors immerse themselves in the myriad of details and specific, concrete information about a case, they might lose sight of the larger picture and care less about justice in general.  Additionally, the current studies may provide a relatively low-effort and innocuous way to reduce jurors’ prejudice toward certain clients.  Though we do not know for sure that the reduction in prejudice we found would lead to less discriminatory decisions, our findings at least suggest that lawyers who are representing nonnormative clients (gay men, atheists, Muslims, etc.) might be able to reduce the amount of bias in the jury toward these clients through prompting the jury to think “big picture,” that is, to the think abstractly (rather than concretely).

However, we do not think that abstract thinking is a tool that will always reduce bias in the jury.  For example, we did not find that construal level had an impact on attitudes toward racial minorities.  Additionally, though it is still an open question, it is unclear whether abstract thinking would improve attitudes toward people accused of child molestation or other heinous crimes. In fact, taking into account the results from Study 3, we would not expect abstract thinking to improve attitudes because negative attitudes toward these groups are generally perceived as being fair and legitimate (and so there is not a dilemma between the concrete prejudices and the abstract value of fairness).  In fact, some construal level literature would suggest that in these cases, abstract thinking might exacerbate moral blame (Eyal, Liberman, & Trope, 2008).

More generally, we believe that the research on construal level theory could have important implications in the courtroom above and beyond the specific findings of the current research.  A large body of literature in this area has highlighted the fact that the level on which people construe the world has large downstream implications on their attitudes and judgments (Trope & Liberman, 2010; Ledgerwood, Trope, & Chaiken, 2010). For example, abstract construal causes people make dispositional judgments of actions, whereas concrete construal causes them to take the situation more into account (Nussbaum, Trope, & Liberman, 20003).

In conclusion, our results from three studies provide converging evidence that adopting an abstract mindset (as opposed to a concrete mindset) can reduce expressions of prejudice toward nonnormative groups, primarily among people who are politically conservative. Study 3 directly demonstrated that the influence of abstract construal on bias is mediated by an increase in the salience of concerns about fairness. Overall, this research brings construal-level theory to bear on the investigation of prejudice and opens several avenues for future endeavors to understand how mindset level might be important in the courtroom.

Illustration by Brian Patterson of Barnes & Roberts

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Jamie Luguri is a PhD candidate in social psychology at Yale University. She studies how people’s mindsets influence their out-group attitudes, moral values, and political attitudes. You can learn more about Jamie’s research on her webpage at http://jamieluguri.commons.yale.edu/.

Jaime L. Napier is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She received her PhD from New York University. Her research centers around the motivational underpinnings and the social and psychological consequences of belief systems, with a focus on political and religious ideologies. You can learn more about her research on her webpage at http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jln33/.

John F. Dovidio is a Professor of Psychology at Yale University.  He received his PhD from the University of Delaware. His work centers around issues of social power and social relations, both between groups and between individuals. You can find more information about his research at his lab’s webpage, http://www.yale.edu/intergroup/. 

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Appendix

Statistics for Study 1:

To test our main predictions, we conducted three linear regressions predicting feelings toward (a) nonnormative groups, (b) racial-ethnic minority groups, and (c) dominant groups; abstract mind-set (centered), political orientation (centered), and the interaction of political orientation and mind-set were entered as independent variables. The model predicting feelings toward nonnormative groups yielded the predicted main effect of political orientation; participants who were more liberal, on averaged, scored about 7.5 points higher on positive feelings toward these groups, b = −7.53, SE = 2.04, p < .001. This effect was qualified by the predicted Mind-Set × Political Orientation interaction, b = 16.88, SE = 6.89, p = .02 (see Fig. 1 below).

In probing this interaction, we find that mindset did not affect positive feelings toward nonnormative groups among liberals (1 SD below the mean political-orientation score), b = −11.45, SE = 15.48, p = .46 (see Fig. 1). However, mindset did affect conservatives (1 SD above the mean political-orientation score). Conservatives who had more abstract mind-sets, as compared to concrete mind-sets, were over 35 points higher on positive feelings toward these nonnormative groups, b = 35.49, SE = 13.44, p = .01.

Thinking about it another way, among the concrete thinkers (1 SD below the mean Behavioral Identification Form score), there was a significant relationship between political orientation and feelings toward nonnormative groups; liberals reported more positive feelings toward these groups than conservatives did, b = −11.92, SE = 2.99, p < .001. Among abstract thinkers (1 SD above the mean Behavioral Identification Form score), however, there was no relationship between ideology and intolerance, b = −3.14, SE = 2.63, p = .24.

Analyses of feelings toward racial-ethnic minority groups revealed only a marginally significant effect of political orientation; more conservative participants had less positive feelings toward racial-ethnic minorities, b = −3.59, SE = 2.04, p = .08. The Mind-Set ´ Political Orientation interaction was not significant, p = .53; in other words, the mindset manipulation did not affect conservatives’ view of minority groups. Also, more conservative participants felt more positively toward dominant groups, b = 4.64, SE = 1.84, p = .02. Again, the Mind-Set ´ Political Orientation interaction was not significant, p = .35. Thus, as expected, construal level affected only feelings toward the nonnormative groups.

Although, on average, the nonnormative groups were rated somewhat more negatively than the racial-ethnic minority groups were (a result consistent with findings from surveys of representative samples), as predicted, mind-set exclusively moderated feelings toward nonnormative groups, rather than reducing negative feelings toward out-groups in general. That is, feeling-thermometer ratings for gay men and lesbians were comparable to those for Blacks and Latinos, but participants’ feelings about gay men and lesbians displayed the expected Mind-Set ´ Political Orientation interaction (ps < .01), whereas their feelings about Blacks (p = .44) and Latinos (p = .43) did not.

Statistics for Study 2:

We found the expected main effect of political orientation on feelings toward nonnormative groups, such that conservative participants were about 11 points lower on positive feelings toward these groups than liberal participants did, b = −11.06, SE = 2.47, p < .001. This effect, again, was dependent on mind-set, b = 7.18, SE = 3.41, p = .04. Specifically, in the concrete condition, political orientation was significantly related to feelings toward the nonnormative groups, such that more conservative participants showed less positive feelings toward these groups, b = −11.06, SE = 2.47, p < .001. In the abstract condition, this difference was significantly reduced (from 11 points to about 4 points), and no longer reliably different from zero, b = −3.88, SE = 2.36, p = .11. Examined another way, results showed that conservatives were almost 15 points more positive toward the nonnormative groups when thinking abstractly than when thinking concretely, b = 14.74, SE = 6.97, p = .04, whereas liberals expressed the same level of positive feelings in the two conditions, b = −5.95, SE = 6.89, p = .39.

As in Study 1, there were no effects of construal on feelings toward the racial-ethnic minority groups or dominant groups. More conservative participants reported somewhat less positive feelings toward racial-ethnic minorities, b = −3.39, SE = 2.37, p = .16, and more positive feelings toward dominant groups, b = 3.71, SE = 1.95, p = .06.

Statistics for Study 3:

There was a main effect of political orientation, such that more conservative participants showed less positive feelings (in terms of about 9 points) toward the nonnormative groups, b = −9.27, SE = 1.37, p < .001. This effect was qualified by a marginally significant Mindset ´ Political Orientation interaction, b = 3.45, SE = 1.92, p = .07. Political orientation was a stronger predictor of positive feelings in the concrete condition, b = −9.27, SE = 1.37, p < .001, than in the abstract condition, b = −5.81, SE = 1.35, p < .001). Conservatives’ feelings toward the nonnormative groups were about 10.5 points more positive in the abstract condition than in the concrete condition, b = 10.47, SE = 4.12, p = .01. There was no effect of construal level on liberals’ feelings toward these groups, b = 0.04, SE = 4.02, p = .99.