How personal and perceived values underpin prejudice against 24 social groups

Previous research has established that values play an important role in understanding prejudice. However, without examining whether the effects of values on prejudice generalize across social groups, conclusions may be misleading from both theoretical and practical perspectives. Across three studies conducted in the UK and Russia, participants reported their prejudice toward 24 groups (e.g., scientists, the elderly, drug addicts), their own values, and the values they attributed to these groups. Perceiving groups as valuing self-transcendence and conservation was generally associated with lower prejudice, whereas perceived self-enhancement and openness values showed little effect. In contrast, personal values varied across target groups. Prejudice was generally lower when participants’ own values aligned with those they perceived in the groups, though this congruence effect did not generalize across groups. Overall, perceived values tended to generalize across outgroups, whereas personal value effects were often group-specific, refining our understanding of how values shape prejudice.