Perspective-taking and guilt during interpersonal confrontation against prejudice

Abstract

Although confronting prejudice is necessary to reduce its occurrence, most people respond with hostility when they are told that they have exhibited prejudiced behavior or made a prejudiced comment. Therefore, we want to identify ways to remedy this, with perspective-taking as a potential route that will help the confronted individual understand the effect of their comment/behavior upon the minority group or individual. We examined how guilt may mediate the relationship between perspective-taking and prosocial behavior, among other variables of interest. We also discuss the implications of our results and identify potential avenues for future research on perspective-taking during confrontation.