Why are some individuals not racially biased? Susceptibility to affective conditioning predicts nonprejudice toward Blacks

Two studies investigated the psychological underpinnings of racial nonbias, defined as extremely low or null bias on measures of implicit and explicit racial attitudes. Study 1 demonstrated that racially nonbiased Whites showed differential susceptibility to affective conditioning compared with participants with more ordinary levels of bias. A significant two-way interaction emerged, indicating that nonbiased individuals were significantly less likely than ordinary individuals to acquire negative affect to neutral stimuli in a classical conditioning paradigm, but were more likely to acquire positive affect to neutral stimuli. Study 2 replicated this pattern of findings using a procedure in which the identification of nonbiased Whites was facilitated by their nomination by an African American acquaintance. Implications for bias formation and prejudice reduction are discussed.