Prejudice: Though national trends show a decline in racism, sexism, and homophobia over the past several decades, these and other prejudices still abound throughout society. Work in SDT tries to understand this gap, in part, by examining the quality of people’s motivation to regulate their prejudice. When people are autonomous in their desire to regulate their prejudice, it stems from their core values and beliefs, and they have a higher quality of motivation to monitor the stereotypes and prejudice they may hold. In contrast, people who are controlled in their motives to regulate their prejudice do not express prejudice out of fear of being criticized or sanctioned (e.g., at work), and this poorer form of prejudice regulation predicts higher levels of explicit and implicit prejudice. Interventions that support people’s autonomy are more effective at reducing prejudice because they help people to better internalize the value of not acting on prejudice. Conversely, prejudice-reduction interventions that are controlling (even if well-intentioned) exacerbate the problem of prejudice as they promote this poorer form of prejudice regulation. 

Bullying: Parents and teachers play a key role in protecting against bullying behavior. Studies show that controlling parenting styles are a risk factor for kids engaging in face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying, whereas autonomy-supportive parenting styles buffer against both types of bulling. Similarly, teachers that are more autonomy supportive tend to foster more inclusive behavior among students, whereas controlling teachers produce more bullying behavior. This suggests, again, the potential for autonomy-supportive interventions to curb bullying and other aggressive behaviors in youth.

Stigma: Those who have a stigmatized, or socially devalued, identity are often on the receiving end of prejudice and bullying, and for this reason, they show higher rates of mental and physical health problems. Work in SDT shows that autonomy-supportive relationships can act as a buffering factor to these health disparities by helping them to express and accept their stigmatized identity. For example, studies with lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals reveal that autonomy-supportive relationships (parents, friends, co-workers) protect mental and physical health because they allow people to be ‘out’ about their sexual identity. In other words, autonomy support allows people to be their authentic selves, including expressing parts of themselves that are socially devalued, and this greatly benefits health.