Social norms of prejudice confrontations impact anticipated costs and benefits of confronting prejudice

The current research examined the impact of perceived social norms of confronting interpersonal prejudice on White people’s perceived barriers and intentions to confront prejudice. The present research (N_total = 1,057) manipulated injunctive (Study 1) and descriptive (Studies 1–3) social norms of confronting prejudice via group consensus information and group behavior. Across studies, descriptive confronting norms facilitated perceptions of fewer anticipated social costs (Studies 1, 3) and greater social benefits (Studies 1–3) relative to the absence of a confronting norm (Studies 2–3) or an injunctive norm of confronting prejudice (Study 1). While social norms of prejudice confrontation did not directly impact White people’s intentions to confront prejudice (Study 1–3) or a specific instance of anti-Asian bias (Studies 2, 3), social norms did indirectly elicit greater intentions to confront prejudice through expectations of reduced social costs and increased social benefits (Studies 1, 2, 3).