"Better than You" Bigotry and Implicit Social Learning

People learn from each other. It happens in the classroom and it happens on the playground. We don't stop learning when we get older. Bowling alleys, bars, sports clubs, politics, sailing, etc... all become part of our social networks. These are not passive activities but ones we find joy in attending and being engaged in. Healthy groups are open but those that take on a "better than you" mentality increase the risks for hate and exclusion. 

People believe all types of things and there is a natural propensity for people to believe they can beat the odds or that the powers of the universe are in their favor. If we didn't have a positive outlook on life we would would struggle with negative affectivity and its ill effects. But.....

Sometimes groups create a "better than you" mentality in which they compare themselves to others as a way defining their own identity. Its fairly common in society to feel that one and their friends are toward the center of life and experience.

The problem is when such inclusive and exclusive beliefs begin to dictate social affairs and encourage aggressive behavior. "Better than you!" turned into "You have no rights!" and "We don't want your type of people around here!".

A study that looked at the better-than-average effect and bias found that those who help themselves in higher regard than others were also very defensive when pointing out bias and racism (Its interesting because humbleness is a virtue that leads to better decision making).

In the British Journal of Social Psychology a study, 'Not your average bigot: The better‐than‐average effect and defensive responding to Implicit Association Test feedback' studied two different groups (Howell & Ratliff, 2017):

Group/Study 1: examined this prediction using archival analysis of two large, online samples of participants completing a Weight‐related Implicit Association Test (IAT

Group/Study 2: replicated Study 1 using nine different, randomly assigned IATs and additional measures of defensiveness.

The researchers found that those who believe they were better-than-average were more defensive when given feedback indicating they were engaged in biased behaviors. In many cases this was related to defensiveness most, if not all of the time, when people held these "better than you" beliefs.

Why is it important?

Hate behavior starts in the distorted beliefs that one is better than another that leads to the discounting of other's rights. The people who feel they are more entitled and better than those around also were more defensive about their bigotry. For example, if a group who learned distorted of their importance (i.e. sports group) in childhood that created a culture of exclusivity they in turn were more defensive about their racist/bigoted behavior.

We know something isn't right when individuals have a sense of entitlement and in turn force their distorted beliefs on others. It would be one thing if they kept those beliefs to themselves but it is something else when they spread those beliefs to their friends, community and children. Instead of learning respect for our most cherished American values and sense of fair play they have implicitly passed destructive values to others seeking social cues on how to act and behave toward people who do not choose to live by the same false distorted values. 

Howell, J. & Ratliff, K. (March 2017). Not your average bigot: The better‐than‐average effect and defensive responding to Implicit Association Test feedback. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56 (1). https://bpspsychub.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/bjso.12168