Reports “White” or “European American”? Self-identifying labels influence majority group members' interethnic attitudes ☆ Kimberly Rios Morrison a, ⁎, Adrienne H. Chung b a Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA b School of Communication, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA abstract article info Article history: Received 29 March 2010 Revised 30 July 2010 Available online 12 August 2010 Keywords: Multiculturalism Diversity Identification Interethnic ideologies Color blindness Multiculturalism (i.e., the recognition and celebration of cultural differences) has many potential benefits for society, including reduced prejudice among nonminorities and increased psychological well-being among ethnic minorities. Yet nonminorities generally tend to resist multiculturalism more than do minorities and believe that it is irrelevant to them. Two studies were conducted to examine why and under what conditions this is the case. In both studies, nonminority participants were randomly assigned to mark their race/ ethnicity as either “White” or “European American” on a demographic survey, before answering questions about their interethnic attitudes. Results demonstrated that nonminorities primed to think of themselves as White (versus European American) were subsequently less supportive of multiculturalism and more racially prejudiced, due to decreases in identification with ethnic minorities. Implications for how to improve nonminorities' attitudes toward multiculturalism are discussed. Published by Elsevier Inc. The growing diversity of American society has fueled an ongoing debate about how to improve interethnic relations. In the past few decades, two dominant perspectives have emerged among social scientists and policymakers. The first perspective, color blindness, argues that treating people as individuals or as members of an overarching category (e.g., Americans), rather than as members of separate groups, is the best way to reduce interethnic conflict (Markus, Steele, & Steele, 2000; Plaut, 2002). The second perspec- tive, multiculturalism, proposes that recognizing and celebrating diversity—as opposed to maintaining that differences between ethnic groups do not and should not matter—will ultimately result in a more harmonious society (Fowers & Richardson, 1996). Research has demonstrated that dominant group members (i.e., nonminorities) in the United States who endorse multiculturalism, relative to those who endorse color blindness, tend to be more supportive of diversity-oriented policies such as affirmative action (Wolsko, Park, & Judd, 2006) and less racially prejudiced (Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004; Wolsko, Park, Judd, & Wittenbrink, 2000). In fact, color blindness, which suggests that differences between groups are superficial and should not be dwelled upon, has increasingly come to be regarded as an outdated, unattainable ideology (Takaki, 1993; Yinger, 1994). Despite the potential benefits of appreciating cultural differences, however, nonminorities are generally more resistant to multiculturalism than are ethnic minorities (Plaut, 2010; Ryan, Hunt, Weible, Peterson, & Casas, 2007; Wolsko et al., 2006). In the present studies, we seek to uncover factors that increase versus decrease nonminorities' support for multicultural ideologies. Specifically, we predict that self-identifying as “White,” which may lead nonmino- rities to relate less closely to ethnic minorities (e.g., due to the perception that Whiteness is not a unique cultural heritage; McDermott & Samson, 2005), will produce less support for multicul- turalism than self-identifying as “European American.” Currently, not much is known about the antecedents of nonminorities' attitudes toward multiculturalism. This is an important issue, given the potential positive effects of multicultural ideologies on intergroup relations and prejudice reduction (Richeson & Nussbaum, 2004; Wolsko et al., 2000, 2006). According to recent research, one reason nonminorities tend to be relatively resistant to multiculturalism is that they believe multicultural ideologies are inapplicable to them (Stevens, Plaut, & Sanchez-Burks, 2008). That is, over time, nonminority identity has shifted from being conceptualized in terms of ethnicity (e.g., Irish American, Italian American) to being considered a “default” racial category (White) whose members are assumed to have less sense of a distinct heritage (McDermott & Samson, 2005). As a result, the idea of appreciating the traditions and characteristics of different ethnic groups may resonate less deeply with nonminorities than with minorities and may even make nonminorities feel excluded. Indeed, some studies have shown that nonminorities are less favorable toward multiculturalism after being presented with traditional multicultural ideologies (e.g., “We should appreciate diversity”) than after being told that diversity is relevant to nonminorities as well as minorities (Stevens et al., 2008). Thus, reframing Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 47 (2011) 165–170 ☆ We thank Lisa Libby for her assistance with data collection and Vicky Plaut for her feedback at various stages of this research. ⁎ Corresponding author. Department of Psychology, University of Chicago, 5848 S. University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. E-mail address: morrisonk@uchicago.edu (K.R. Morrison). 0022-1031/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier Inc. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2010.07.019 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Experimental Social Psychology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jesp