ON THE NATURE OF PREJUDICE

168 JonesFuture DirectionsOne dramatic change in the nature of prejudice and discrimination is thesubstantial evidence of subtle or aversive racism (see Gaertner & Dovidio,ch. 5 this volume). Allport wrote in the context of blatant, public, andlegally sanctioned patterns of discrimination. For the most part, this oldfashionedracism has been transformed into less obvious threats to opportunityand well-being. What are the adaptive strategies that targets employto create or maintain psychological safety and self-worth in this morenebulous but palpable world of psychological threat?I have proposed that TRIOS represents a patterned worldview thatplays an adaptive role in such circumstances. Subtle racism may requireflexibility of response styles, and self-determined standards of self-worth.Blatant forms of racism compelled Allport’s theorizing to focus on patternsof self-protection, but the more subtle forms may require more selfenhancingmechanisms. Self-enhancement is commonly considered to be asocial comparison process, but I believe future research should explorenoncomparative forms of self-enhancement. For example, spirituality mayconfer positive self-regard in ways that are internally motivated and do notdepend on relative worth. It is possible that social comparative mechanismsare rejected by stigmatized groups to avoid unfavorable outcomes ina system of reward allocation biased against them. Crocker and colleagueshave already suggested as much and shown that Blacks are more inclinedto base self-worth on noncontingent criteria than Whites are (Crocker &Wolfe, 2001).A related question concerns how ingroup comparisons can becomestandards for conferring self-worth. This may be related to ReferenceGroup Orientation (Vandiver et al., 2002). Cross and colleagues argue thatreference group orientation is independent of personal identity, but othersargue they are intertwined. I propose that preferred modes of personalexpression, values, and the like, can become standards of conduct (culturalpatterns or designs for living) and may thus provide standards for psychologicalwell-being that do not rely on cross-racial comparative processes.I propose that affirming the values and cultural ethos of the collective,including individualistic forms of self-expression, may also serve selfenhancingfunctions ( Jones, 1999). An important general research directionis to explore the conditions under which intergroup versus interpersonalcomparisons are made by members of stigmatized social groups. That is,when does one compare with mainstream standards or ingroup standardsas a measure of self-worth? It is probable that the hypothesized low