From confronted to confronter? Examining the enduring effects of prejudice confrontations.

This article investigates whether prejudice confrontations—interpersonal challenges to biased behavior—can not only reduce bias in White perpetrators but also promote their active allyship by becoming confronters of prejudice themselves. Across two longitudinal studies with White American undergraduates, participants confronted for using negative Black stereotypes showed immediate reductions in stereotyping and reported greater negative self-directed affect and rumination up to one month later. Confronted participants were more likely to indicate intentions to confront prejudice in hypothetical scenarios and, in one study, reported increased real-world confrontation of discrimination, alongside greater monitoring of their own biases and perceptions that confronting prejudice is normative. Mediation analyses suggest that negative self-directed affect, rumination, and monitoring of others’ biases partially explain the transition from being confronted to becoming a confronter, although findings on perceived norms were mixed. These results provide evidence that prejudice confrontation may foster an ideological shift toward egalitarian thinking and behavior, extending beyond immediate bias reduction to encourage allyship among White individuals.