Holding Back: The Impact of Motivation to Control Prejudice on Stereotypes About Immigrants

Abstract

A central insight from the research building on the Stereotype Content Model (SMC) is that different groups elicit different emotional and threat reactions. To advance our knowledge about which groups are likely to share experiences of discrimination and prejudice, we must explore the content of the stereotypes connected to different immigrant groups. Building on population representative survey data, the study applies a split-sample experimental design to test the SCM in Norway, an egalitarian welfare state characterized by low-income inequality. The results confirm the relevance of the SCM model in an egalitarian welfare setting, displaying an ethnic hierarchy expressed through social stereotypes. The results further indicate that ambivalent stereotypes of immigrants are limited in the Norwegian context. Finally, this study extends the SCM model by examining how respondents’ motivation to control prejudice (MCP) moderate stereotype judgement and finds that respondents with a high MCP rated the groups that are stereotyped as cold and incompetent more positively than individuals with a low MCP. Thus, individual propensity to hold back on prejudices influences expressions of stereotype content.