Changing Racial Prejudice Through Diversity Education

Journal of College Student Development, Mar/Apr 2005 by Hogan, David E, Mallott, Michael

Diversity course instructors may find Eagly and Chaiken's (1993) review of research and theory on attitude formation useful in the classroom. A central idea incorporated by prominent social cognition theories (e.g., the heuristic-systematic theory of Chaiken, Liberman & Eagly, 1989; and the elaboration likelihood theory of Petty & Cacioppo, 1986) is that acceptance of a persuasive message is more likely when students' motivations and/ or abilities to scrutinize the logic and implications of an argument are high. According to the elaboration likelihood model, persuasion principles that promote behavior change include, but are not limited to, strengthening the quality of the argument with numerous plausible examples, increasing the personal relevance of the message, enhancing comprehensibility of the message, and engaging need for cognition. Implementing one or more of the principles through classroom lectures and exercises may produce the desired improvement in students' attitudes and behavior toward African Americans.

An important consequence of completing a diversity course is that it may raise the probability of favorable behavioral interaction with minorities beyond the classroom (Allport, 1954; Amir, 1969; Brewer & Miller, 1988; Chang, 2001). Herek and Capitanio (1996) have hypothesized that the causal link between favorable attitudes and subsequent contact with gays is reciprocal: Favorable attitudes toward gays increase the probability of contact which, in turn, further strengthen favorable attitudes. An implication of this feedback cycle is that race/gender courses may further reduce prejudice by increasing the likelihood of favorable interpersonal experiences with racial minorities in ecological contexts external to the setting where the positive attitude was originally acquired. While there is evidence that race and gender courses do indeed contribute to positive interactions with Blacks after their college experience (Chang, 2001), additional research related to this principle is sorely needed.

Summary

The present research demonstrates that completion of a course in race and gender issues increased students' awareness that racism is still a social problem, but had only a transient effect on reducing antagonism toward government programs designed to help African Americans achieve social and economic equity and no effect on their feelings of resentment over those achievements. The results underscore the importance of implementing teaching practices in diversity courses that produce durable changes in all facets of modern racial prejudice.

REFERENCES

Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Cambridge, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Amir, Y. (1969). Contact hypothesis in ethnic relations. Psychological Bulletin, 71, 319-342.

Banks, J. A. (1996). Transformative knowledge, curriculum reform, and action. In J. A. Banks (Ed.), Multicultural education, transformative knowledge and action: Historical and contemporary perspectives (pp. 335-352). New York: Teacher's College Press.