Using Shared Reality Theory and Social Tuning to Modify the Expression of Racial Profiling Behaviors

In the experiments proposed here, I tested the hypothesis that automatic racial prejudice, as evidenced in racial profiling behaviors, is subject to elements of common social influence. Across all 3 experiments, participants engaged in a racial profiling video game in the presence of a male experimenter to demonstrate the extent to which they shift their social beliefs (i.e., engage in social tuning) to align more closely with him. Experiment 2 used actual interracial (European American and African American) contact to examine the extent to which tacit social influence modifies the expression of automatic prejudice in the racial profiling video game. Experiment 3, extended Experiment 2 by adding a condition of both European American and African American experimenter's expressed racial attitude. Results were consistent with the tenets of shared reality theory, which postulates that social regulation is central to social cognition and that social bonds are established and maintained to the degree that social beliefs are perceived to be shared by individuals.