Compulsion in White Privilege Training: Effects on Psychological Reactance

Abstract

Racism is a significant societal problem in the United States, and interventions intended to reduce racial injustice have inconsistent results. One factor that may undermine success or lead to paradoxical outcomes is reactance, a response to a perceived restriction of individual freedom. In this study, conducted via MTurk, White males were randomly assigned to read either a White privilege article or a control condition article (cooking). Participants then completed a brief writing assignment, randomly assigned to a compulsory writing condition, a free expression writing condition, or a control writing condition (cooking). Participants who completed a compulsory writing task were hypothesized to demonstrate more reactance than participants who completed a free expression writing task. Sample did not meet the power required for detecting a statistical effect, but group means were consistent with the hypothesis.