Can antidiscrimination law effect changes in public attitudes toward minority groups? Could learning, for instance, that employment discrimination against people with clinical depression is legally prohibited cause members of the public to be more accepting toward people with mental health conditions? In this Article, we report the results of a series of experiments that test the effect of inducing the belief that discrimination against a given group is legal (versus illegal) on interpersonal attitudes toward members of that group. We find that learning that discrimination is unlawful does not simply lead people to believe that an employer is more likely to face punishment for discriminatory behavior. It also leads some people to report less prejudicial attitudes and greater feelings of interpersonal warmth toward members of that group. Conversely, when people learn that the law tolerates discrimination against a group, it can license more prejudicial attitudes. Importantly, we demonstrate that individuals vary substantially in the degree to which they view courts as legitimate authorities and that these orientations systematically moderate the degree to which—and even the direction in which—prejudicial attitudes shift in response to legal rules.

反歧视法能否改变公众对少数群体的态度？例如，了解法律禁止对临床抑郁症患者的就业歧视是否会导致公众更容易接受有精神健康问题的人？在本文中，我们报告了一系列实验的结果，这些实验测试了诱导对特定群体的歧视是合法（相对于非法）的信念对该群体成员的人际态度的影响。我们发现，得知歧视是非法的，并不仅仅让人们相信雇主更有可能因歧视行为而受到惩罚。它还导致一些人报告对该群体成员的偏见态度和人际温暖感更强。反过来，当人们了解到法律容忍对一个群体的歧视时，它就会允许更多的偏见态度。重要的是，我们证明了个人在将法院视为合法当局的程度方面存在很大差异，并且这些取向系统地缓和了偏见态度响应法律规则的程度甚至方向转变。