Motivated Endorsement of Interethnic Ideologies: An Optimal Distinctiveness Approach

The current study examined the effects of need for inclusion and differentiation (Brewer, 1991) activations on endorsement of colorblind and multicultural ideologies, and the roles ideological endorsements played in visual social perception. A total of 238 university students were given false feedback on a personality inventory to activate needs for differentiation and inclusion, as well as completed interethnic ideology measures and a morphed faces judgment task in which they perceived whether paired others were exactly the same or different. Bootstrapping analyses (Preacher & Hayes, 2008) confirmed that, consistent with hypotheses, need for inclusion activation participants endorsed colorblind ideology to a greater extent, as well as took longer to correctly identify ambiguously different faces, compared to need for differentiation activation participants. Moreover, colorblind ideology endorsement predicted increased reaction time in correctly categorizing ambiguously different faces. Analyses indicated that colorblind ideology fully mediated the need state activation-reaction time to correctly categorize ambiguously different faces relationship. Need state activation condition did not predict multicultural ideology endorsement, nor did multicultural ideology endorsement predict reaction time to correctly categorize ambiguously different faces. Results reveal that inclusiveness need activation may predispose one to endorse colorblind ideology, which in turn holds basic social perception implications within ambiguous contexts.