Confrontation of Prejudice in the Workplace: The Role of Observer Prejudice Level, Discrimination Type, and Perpetrator Status

Abstract

The Confronting Prejudiced Responses (CPR) Model (Ashburn-Nardo, Morris, & Goodwin, 2008) describes factors that predict whether people confront prejudice that they witness. The present research examined some of these factors, including: observer prejudice level (low to high), discrimination type (racism or sexism), and perpetrator status (subordinate, peer, or supervisor to observer). Three hundred forty students from a large urban university in the Midwest read scenarios involving racism or sexism and completed items related to the CPR Model and measures of racial vs. gender attitudes. Results indicated that participants were more likely to report that they would confront racism than sexism, especially to the extent that they had low-prejudice attitudes. In addition, participants were less likely to report directly confronting (and more likely to report the incident to an authority when the perpetrator was) a supervisor than a peer or subordinate. Implications of this research include using the CPR Model as a method to educate organizations on prejudice reduction strategies in the workplace.