Setting Him Up for Success (or Failure): Motivated Evaluations of White and Black Male Leaders’ Effectiveness

White and Black male leaders are evaluated by different standards; while dominance is rewarded for White men, communality is preferred for Black men. We suggest that this differential evaluation may be indicative of a motivated process, wherein Whites may preferentially support certain Black male leaders as a form of appeasement. Whites who believe that their outcomes are tied to their racial group and are thus highly motivated to reinforce the racial hierarchy may elect to support communal Black male leaders, as they may perceive that these leaders are the least threatening to the racial hierarchy while being adequate to placate Black individuals. We find that Whites’ common fate positively predicts perceived leader effectiveness for dominant White male leaders, but that Whites high in common fate tended to evaluate communal Black male leaders as more effective than dominant ones. Implications for hierarchy maintenance and racial inequality are discussed.