Politeness Strategies in Confrontations of Prejudice

This project draws on the self-regulation of prejudiced responses model and politeness theory to investigate the role of politeness strategies in interpersonal confrontations of prejudice. One hundred and three participants were exposed to experimental confrontations of prejudiced remarks made about Native Americans. The results generally indicate that direct confrontations, which included an explanation of why the response was perceived as prejudiced, were most effective in reducing prejudiced responses and reducing levels of reported prejudice. Furthermore, participants generally accepted confrontations of their prejudiced responses and did not negatively evaluate their confronters. Finally, the more positive politeness participants perceived in the confrontations, the more positively they evaluated their confronter. Implications for theory and the confrontation of prejudice in everyday life are discussed.