The social costs of extrinsic relative to intrinsic goal pursuits: Their relation with social dominance and racial and ethnic prejudice

Self-Determination Theory’s distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic goal pursuits offers a possible explanation for ethnic and racial prejudice. Because extrinsic relative to intrinsic goal pursuits (E / I) stimulate interpersonal competition, they were expected to predict social dominance orientation (SDO), which, in turn, would predict racial and ethnic prejudice. Results of a first, cross-sectional study show that E / I goal pursuits are positively associated with prejudice and that SDO partially mediates this association. In a second, longitudinal study, we replicated these results. In addition, however, we found evidence for a reciprocal relationship between E / I goal pursuit and SDO. Moreover, both E / I goal pursuit and SDO had an independent effect on increases in prejudice. Implications of these findings are discussed.