Reducing implicit racial preferences: I. A comparative investigation of 17 interventions.

Many methods for reducing implicit prejudice have been identified, but little is known about their relative
effectiveness. We held a research contest to experimentally compare interventions for reducing the
expression of implicit racial prejudice. Teams submitted 17 interventions that were tested an average of
3.70 times each in 4 studies (total N ! 17,021), with rules for revising interventions between studies.
Eight of 17 interventions were effective at reducing implicit preferences for Whites compared with
Blacks, particularly ones that provided experience with counterstereotypical exemplars, used evaluative
conditioning methods, and provided strategies to override biases. The other 9 interventions were
ineffective, particularly ones that engaged participants with others’ perspectives, asked participants to
consider egalitarian values, or induced a positive emotion. The most potent interventions were ones that
invoked high self-involvement or linked Black people with positivity and White people with negativity.
No intervention consistently reduced explicit racial preferences. Furthermore, intervention effectiveness
only weakly extended to implicit preferences for Asians and Hispanics.