Culpable but capable: 

Harnessing self-efficacy to promote racial equality

Poster Session B, Exhibit Hall D

8:00-9:00am MST

Friday, February 21, 2025

Abstract 

White Americans consistently experience better outcomes than their Black counterparts on nearly every metric, yet most view systemic racial inequality as a thing of the past. Inequity frames theory suggests that the overwhelming portrayal of racial inequality as an issue of Black disadvantage may be to blame – Reframing the same issues as a White advantage has been shown to reduce colorblindness and racism. However, this spotlight on White privilege can also increase perceived threat, resulting in hostility and defensiveness. Although some interventions, such as self-affirmation, can help to reduce these unintended consequences by mitigating threat, they’ve been largely ineffective in motivating equity-promoting behavior. In contrast, interventions targeting self-efficacy rather than self-esteem may address this shortcoming. In a sample of 645 White Americans, we found that exposure to advantage-framed inequality predicted greater willingness to dismantle White privilege and more support for affirmative action than exposure to disadvantage-framed inequality, through perceived self-efficacy. Additional mechanisms and moderators are discussed.

SPSP25poster.pdf

Supplemental Material

Advantage-framed Evidence of Inequality (Dover, 2022)

In the United States, economic outcomes for White Americans are consistently more positive than economic outcomes for Black Americans. For example, White citizens earn more than their Black counterparts when doing the same type of work with the same educational background. Studies have also shown that White job applicants are more likely than Black job applicants to be called back for job interviews, even when their resumes are identical. This pro-White bias also appears in other areas: compared to their Black counterparts, White Americans are over-represented in politics, in business, in mainstream TV and film, and at most colleges and universities. Being White gives you some other distinct advantages: being stopped by the police, being incarcerated, and being unemployed are all much less likely if you are White. Experts point to several reasons why this racial inequality persists in America. These include the country's long history of slave ownership and segregation, as well as the more positive stereotypes about White people (vs. Black people) held by most Americans still today.

Disadvantage-framed Evidence of Inequality (Dover, 2022)

In the United States, economic outcomes for Black Americans are consistently more negative than economic outcomes for White Americans. For example, Black citizens earn less than their White counterparts when doing the same type of work with the same educational background. Studies have also shown that Black job applicants are less likely than White job applicants to be called back for job interviews, even when their resumes are identical. This anti-Black bias also appears in other areas: compared to their White counterparts, Black Americans are under-represented in politics, in business, in mainstream TV and film, and at most colleges and universities. Being Black gives you some other distinct disadvantages: being stopped by the police, being incarcerated, and being unemployed are all much more likely if you are Black. Experts point to several reasons why this racial inequality persists in America. These include the country’s long history of slavery and segregation, as well as the more negative stereotypes about Black people (vs. White people) held by most Americans still today.

Self-Affirmation Intervention (Cohen et al., 2000)


Below is a list of characteristics and values, some of which may be important to you, some of which may be unimportant. Please rank the following 10 values in order of personal importance (1st = most important, 10th = least important). Then, write about why your top-ranked value is important to you.



Please write about why your top-ranked value is important to you.

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