CURRENT DIRECTIONS IN PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE Copyright © 1999 American Psychological Society 101 Prejudice is commonly defined as an unfair negative attitude to- ward a social group or a member of that group. Stereotypes, which are overgeneralizations about a group or its members that are factually in- correct and inordinately rigid, are a set of beliefs that can accompany the negative feelings associated with prejudice. Traditional ap- proaches consider prejudice, like other attitudes, to be acquired through socialization and support- ed by the beliefs, attitudes, and val- ues of friends and peer groups (see Jones, 1997). We consider the na- ture of traditional and contempo- rary forms of prejudice, particular- ly racial prejudice, and review a range of techniques that have been demonstrated empirically to re- duce prejudice and other forms of intergroup bias. Bias can occur in many forms, and thus it has been assessed by a range of measures. These measures include standard- ized tests of prejudice toward an- other social group, stereotypes, evaluations of and feelings about specific group members and about the group in general, support for policies and individual actions benefiting the other group, and in- teraction and friendship patterns. In part because of changing norms and the Civil Rights Act and other legislative interventions that made discrimination not simply immoral but also illegal, overt ex- pressions of prejudice have de- clined significantly over the past 35 years. Contemporary forms of prej- udice, however, continue to exist and affect the lives of people in subtle but significant ways (Dovidio & Gaertner, 1998; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). The negative feelings and beliefs that underlie contemporary forms of prejudice may be rooted in either individual processes (such as cog- nitive and motivational biases and socialization) or intergroup processes (such as realistic group conflict or biases associated with the mere categorization of people into in-groups and out-groups). These negative biases may occur spontaneously, automatically, and without full awareness. Many contemporary approaches to prejudice based on race, ethnici- ty, or sex acknowledge the persist- ence of overt, intentional forms of prejudice but also consider the role of these automatic or unconscious processes 2 and the consequent in- direct expressions of bias. With re- spect to the racial prejudice of white Americans toward blacks, for example, in contrast to “old-fash- ioned” racism, which is blatant, aversive racism represents a subtle, often unintentional, form of bias that characterizes many white Americans who possess strong egalitarian values and who believe that they are nonprejudiced. Aversive racists also possess nega- tive racial feelings and beliefs (which develop through normal so- cialization or reflect social-catego- rization biases) that they are un- aware of or that they try to dissociate from their nonpreju- diced self-images. Because aversive racists consciously endorse egali- tarian values, they will not discrim- inate directly and openly in ways that can be attributed to racism; however, because of their negative feelings, they will discriminate, often unintentionally, when their behavior can be justified on the basis of some factor other than race Reducing Prejudice: Combating Intergroup Biases John F. Dovidio 1 and Samuel L. Gaertner Department of Psychology, Colgate University, Hamilton, New York (J.F.D.), and Department of Psychology, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware (S.L.G.) Abstract Strategies for reducing prej- udice may be directed at the traditional, intentional form of prejudice or at more subtle and perhaps less conscious contemporary forms. Whereas the traditional form of preju- dice may be reduced by direct educational and attitude- change techniques, contempo- rary forms may require alter- native strategies oriented toward the individual or in- volving intergroup contact. Individual-oriented tech- niques can involve leading people who possess contem- porary prejudices to discover inconsistencies among their self-images, values, and be- haviors; such inconsistencies can arouse negative emotional states (e.g., guilt), which motivate the development of more favorable attitudes. Intergroup strategies can in- volve structuring intergroup contact to produce more indi- vidualized perceptions of the members of the other group, foster personalized interac- tions between members of the different groups, or redefine group boundaries to create more inclusive, superordinate representations of the groups. Understanding the nature and bases of prejudice can thus guide, theoretically and prag- matically, interventions that can effectively reduce both traditional and contemporary forms of prejudice. Keywords attitude change; intergroup contact; prejudice; racism; social categorization