Effects of a video intervention and ethnocultural empathy on racial color-blindness, White empathy, and willingness to confront White privilege

This purpose of this study was to examine (a) the effects of a video intervention on decreasing racial color-blindness, increasing White people's empathy toward racism (i.e., White empathy), and increasing willingness to confront White privilege; and (b) whether ethnocultural empathy moderated the effect of this intervention on these two outcomes. A total of 287 self-identified White students at a large Midwestern university were randomly assigned to either an intervention group ( = 147) in which they watched two discrimination-related videos or a control group ( = 140) without watching any videos for a three-wave study (before-, during-, and 1-week after-intervention). Results from latent growth curve modeling supported the effects of the intervention, indicating that those in the intervention (but not control) group reported statistically significant decreases in racial color-blindness, as well as increases in White empathy and willingness to confront White privilege over time. Moreover, latent growth curve results also indicated that ethnocultural empathy significantly moderated the effects of the intervention on racial color-blindness and White empathy, but not on willingness to confront White privilege. Specifically, those with levels of ethnocultural empathy reported a significant decrease in racial color-blindness, whereas those with levels of ethnocultural empathy reported no change in racial color-blindness over time. Conversely, those with levels of ethnocultural empathy reported a significant increase in White empathy whereas those with levels of ethnocultural empathy maintained higher levels of White empathy over all three waves. This study found that it is possible to meaningfully decrease racial color-blindness, increase White empathy toward racial injustice, and promote willingness to confront White privilege with a brief, discrimination-related video intervention. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).