You and Will have two different perspectives, both plausible: you argue it's self-interest, and he argues it's (psychological) priming. (It's also possible that it's both, or that it's neither.)

Will gave some evidence to back up that the priming effect at least exists, since the effect itself is a bit weird compared to self-interest which we all understand is at least a thing (even if we aren't sure whether it plays a role in the failure of anti-racism training).

Do you have any evidence that suggests that self-interest is the dominant factor at play here?

Or, where should we look to find out?