Fair judgment 1 Running head: Fair judgment How the motivation to judge fair influences memory for in- and out-group behavior

The present study investigated the subtle effects of an instruction to judge fairly and to avoid the influence of stereotypes on judgments. Previous studies have shown that instructions to disregard stereotypes may lead to an enhanced accessibility of the respective stereotype, which, in turn, facilitates encoding and identification of stereotype-consistent information, but not of stereotype-irrelevant information. Extending this research, the present study examined the effects of a fairness instruction on the encoding of stereotype-inconsistent information compared to stereotype-consistent information. It was found that participants who were instructed to avoid stereotypic judgments showed enhanced memory for stereotype-consistent as well as for stereotype-inconsistent information. Thus, fairness instructions have the unwanted effect of enhancing memory for stereotype-consistent information, but also the desired effect of enhancing memory for information contradicting the stereotype.