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2017
mere exposure to the norm of meritocracy should be sufficient to increase the levels of implicit
prejudice towards those groups. Therefore, we expected the activation of a meritocratic norm
to increase the expression of implicit prejudice towards low-status groups.
Overview
We report two experiments designed to investigate the effects of priming meritocracy
on the levels of implicit prejudice that individuals display towards a low-status group. In both
experiments, we measured (Dutch participants’) implicit negative associations towards
Moroccans, currently a strongly stigmatized low-status group in the Netherlands (Verkuyten &
Zaremba, 2005) where the studies took place. We manipulate the meritocratic norm in either a
more manifest (Study 1) or a more subtle way (Study 2) and we measure implicit prejudice
using a Single-Target IAT (Study 1) or an Affective Priming Task (Study 2).
Study 1
In this first study, participants were asked to take part in two supposedly unrelated
studies. After arriving in the lab, participants took part in a task presented as a
Text
Comprehension Task
that served to manipulate the meritocratic norm. After this first task, all
participants completed a Single Target IAT (see, Dotsch & Wigboldüs, 2008; Wigboldüs,
Holland & van Knippenberg, 2004). We expected to observe higher levels of prejudice in the
condition of meritocracy than in the neutral condition.
Method
Participants and design
Forty-two Dutch students (84% female; mean age = 22.3 yrs) took part in the
experiment in exchange for partial course credit or a token with a value of Eur 5. Participants
were randomly distributed in a unifactorial between-participants design (Meritocracy vs.
Neutral).
Manipulation of meritocracy.
The manipulation was presented as a text
comprehension task. Participants were invited to carefully read a text in order to subsequently
choose the sentence that best expresses the main idea of the text. Two different texts and two
sets of sentences represented the two different conditions. In the meritocracy condition,
participants read a text explaining how current societies are characterized by the idea of merit
5