Social costs of bias confrontation are persistent but independent of bias reduction

Abstract

Although interpersonal confrontation is a powerful means of curbing bias, perpetrators often levy social costs on confronters. Two experiments with U.S. undergraduate participants tested whether social costs and bias reduction have separate underlying processes that occur independently or are interrelated. We also investigated the effect of perpetrator–confronter proximity on social costs (Experiment 1) and persistence of social costs (Experiment 2). Results indicated (a) confrontation elicited negative other-directed affect, which was a mediator of social costs but not bias reduction; (b) confrontation elicited negative self-directed affect, which was a mediator of bias reduction but largely unrelated to social costs; and (c) social costs and bias reduction were unrelated. Furthermore, face-to-face compared to more remote confrontation amplified social costs, and social costs increased across time. In contrast, proximity and time did not influence bias reduction. These findings demonstrate the persistence of social costs and the independence of social costs and bias reduction.