Friends With Moral Credentials Minority Friendships Reduce Attributions of Racism for Majority Group Members Who Make Conceivably Racist Statements

Michael Thai; Matthew J. Hornsey; Fiona Kate Barlow

doi:10.1177/1948550615624140

Friends With Moral Credentials

Minority Friendships Reduce Attributions of Racism for Majority Group Members Who Make Conceivably Racist Statements

¹School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland, Australia
²School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Mt. Gravatt, Queensland, Australia

Michael Thai, School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia. Email: m.thai{at}uq.edu.au

Abstract

People commonly reference minority friendships when expressing conceivably prejudiced attitudes. The prevalence of this strategy suggests a widespread belief that having minority friends makes one look less racist, but to date, there is little research demonstrating whether or not this is the case. White and Asian participants were presented with a Facebook profile depicting a White target who posted an anti-Asian statement. Being depicted with Asian friends (Study 1) or even verbally claiming that they had Asian friends (Study 2) reduced attributions of racism irrespective of whether they were being evaluated by White or Asian observers. Furthermore, the presence of Asian friends made the conceivably racist comments seem relatively benign, and observers were less offended and upset by them. The data suggest that minority friendships can partially offset costs associated with expressing prejudice.

Article Notes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: The research contained within this article was in part supported by the third author’s Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Research Award (DE120102068).
Supplemental Material The online data supplements are available at http://spps.sagepub.com/supplemental.