Judged by the Cover
Target Weight and Gender Moderate Anti-Black Bias in Pain Perception
Yanzi Huang et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Perceivers recognize pain less readily on Black (vs. White) faces in the United States. The present work investigated whether this perceptual bias is moderated by target weight and gender across three experiments. Anti-Black bias in pain perception was mitigated within heavier-weight (vs. average-weight) male-appearing targets (Experiment 1) but was independent of female-appearing targets’ weight (Experiment 2). A well-powered, pre-registered Experiment 3 replicated these findings, confirming that target weight and gender interactively shaped anti-Black bias in pain perception: target weight moderated perceptual bias within male-appearing (but not female-appearing) faces. These findings help illuminate factors that interact to shape racial bias in pain perception and demonstrate the importance of intersectionality when studying social perceptual biases.
Expectations of men’s use of harsh parental discipline through formidability inferences
Mitch Brown et al.
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
One modality to estimate men’s formidability and aggressive proclivities is their facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR). Such inferences may further influence perceptions of men as fathers, particularly their preferred disciplinary strategies. Four studies investigated expectations of parental disciplinary strategies as a function of fWHR. Participants viewed high-fWHR men as more likely to punish offspring (Study 1), and this expectation was especially rooted in perceptions of their proclivity toward anger (Study 2). These inferences were also specific to physical discipline (Study 3). A downstream perception further emerged of high-fWHR men as being more prone to child abuse (Study 4). Findings indicate how formidability inferences inform modern-day expectations of familial dynamics, highlighting an evolutionary mismatch.
Changes and stagnation in contemporary racial stereotypes
Tory Ash et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Generations of researchers have studied the extent to which the content and consistency of stereotypes about Black people have changed over time. At best, the evidence is mixed with some findings suggesting changes in stereotypes and other evidence suggesting that, though belief in stereotypes changed for some people, stereotypes remain negative. Our study adds to the literature by evaluating participants’ stereotype knowledge and personal beliefs about Black people, aligning with recommended practices by Devine and Elliot. Our data reveal a shift in stereotype content overall and greater heterogeneity in trait selections among participants with egalitarian values. However, stereotypes regarding Black people are, if anything, more negative in the present study than in prior research. The stubbornness of valence to change is concerning and reaffirms the need to focus research efforts on improving individuals’ ability to regulate their expression of stereotypes to prevent them from affecting their treatment of others.
Examining the Effect of Celebrity Status on Tolerance for the Sexualization of a Teen Girl in the Media: An Experiment
Samaha Ghani & Elizabeth Cohen
Sexuality & Culture, April 2024, Pages 813–824
Abstract:
Celebrity teenage girls are routinely sexualized in the media, but it is unclear whether these depictions are tolerable because it is relatively more socially acceptable to exploit celebrities. This study presents the results of an experiment comparing readers’ (N = 237) responses to two nearly identical versions of a fashion article sexualizing a teen girl identified as either a celebrity or non-celebrity. Even though participants in both conditions correctly identified the teen as being a minor, they deemed the article that sexualized a non-celebrity as being more inappropriate than the same article sexualizing a celebrity. However, perceptions of fame did not mediate this effect.
People see more of their biases in algorithms
Begum Celiktutan, Romain Cadario & Carey Morewedge
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 16 April 2024
Abstract:
Algorithmic bias occurs when algorithms incorporate biases in the human decisions on which they are trained. We find that people see more of their biases (e.g., age, gender, race) in the decisions of algorithms than in their own decisions. Research participants saw more bias in the decisions of algorithms trained on their decisions than in their own decisions, even when those decisions were the same and participants were incentivized to reveal their true beliefs. By contrast, participants saw as much bias in the decisions of algorithms trained on their decisions as in the decisions of other participants and algorithms trained on the decisions of other participants. Cognitive psychological processes and motivated reasoning help explain why people see more of their biases in algorithms. Research participants most susceptible to bias blind spot were most likely to see more bias in algorithms than self. Participants were also more likely to perceive algorithms than themselves to have been influenced by irrelevant biasing attributes (e.g., race) but not by relevant attributes (e.g., user reviews). Because participants saw more of their biases in algorithms than themselves, they were more likely to make debiasing corrections to decisions attributed to an algorithm than to themselves. Our findings show that bias is more readily perceived in algorithms than in self and suggest how to use algorithms to reveal and correct biased human decisions.
Gender Identity-, Race-, And Ethnicity-Based Discrimination in Access to Mental Health Care: Evidence from an Audit Correspondence Field Experiment
Luca Fumarco et al.
American Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Transgender people, African Americans, and Hispanics face mental health disparities. While mental health care can help, minoritized groups could face discriminatory barriers in accessing it. Discrimination may be particularly pronounced in mental health care because providers have more discretion over accepting patients. Research documents discrimination broadly, including in access to health care, but there is limited empirical research on discrimination in access to mental health care. We provide the first experimental evidence, from a correspondence audit field experiment (“simulated patients” study), of the extent to which transgender and non-binary people, African Americans, and Hispanics face discrimination in access to mental health-care appointments. We find significant discrimination against transgender or non-binary African Americans and Hispanics. We do not find evidence of discrimination against White transgender and non-binary prospective patients. We are mostly inconclusive as to whether cisgender African Americans or Hispanics face discrimination, except we find evidence of discrimination against cisgender African American women.
Are beliefs about “being a man” associated with White men’s self-perceptions about confronting racism?
Stefanie Simon & Anna-Kaisa Reiman
Psychology of Men & Masculinities, forthcoming
Abstract:
We examined the relationship between White American men’s endorsement of precarious manhood (i.e., the belief that manhood is a status that must be earned, needs to be demonstrated in public, and can be lost) and their beliefs about confronting racism targeting Black people. Three preregistered studies revealed that White men from the United States who scored higher on precarious manhood beliefs were less motivated to confront racism (Studies 1 and 3; Ns = 398 and 447), reported they would view themselves negatively if they confronted racism (Studies 1–3), and reported more negative attitudes toward Black people in general (Study 3). Exploratory free-response data from Study 2 (N = 366) showed that the more strongly White men endorsed precarious manhood, the less likely they were to report they would feel proud of themselves for confronting racism. Together, these findings suggest that White men’s precarious manhood beliefs may represent a hindrance to confronting racism.
Differentiation in social perception: Why later-encountered individuals are described more negatively
Alex Koch et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
According to the cognitive–ecological model of social perception, biases toward individuals can arise as by-products of cognitive principles that interact with the information ecology. The present work tested whether negatively biased person descriptions occur as by-products of cognitive differentiation. Later-encountered persons are described by their distinct attributes that differentiate them from earlier-encountered persons. Because distinct attributes tend to be negative, serial person descriptions should become increasingly negative. We found our predictions confirmed in six studies. In Study 1, descriptions of representatively sampled persons became increasingly distinct and negative with increasing serial positions of the target person. Study 2 eliminated this pattern of results by instructing perceivers to assimilate rather than differentiate a series of targets. Study 3 generalized the pattern from one-word descriptions of still photos of targets to multisentence descriptions of videos of targets. In line with the cognitive–ecological model, Studies 4–5b found that the relation between serial position and negativity was amplified among targets with similar positive attributes, zero among targets with distinct positive or negative attributes, and reversed among similar negative targets. Study 6 returned to representatively sampled targets and generalized the serial position–negativity effect from descriptions of the targets to overall evaluations of them. In sum, the present research provides strong evidence for the explanatory power of the cognitive–ecological model of social perception. We discuss theoretical and practical implications. It may pay off to appear early in an evaluation sequence.
Validating the White Flight Hypothesis: Neighborhood Racial Composition and Out-Migration in Two Longitudinal Surveys
Peter Mateyka & Matthew Hall
Sociological Science, March 2024
Abstract:
Empirical research assessing the link between neighborhood racial composition and out-migration has largely relied on a single sample from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). In this article, we validate these models by comparing estimates from the PSID to estimates from identical models based on internal Census data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). Doing so serves two purposes: (1) as a replication exercise for findings with major implications for racial/ethnic inequality and (2) as an expansion of the scope of ‘flight’ models to test mobility models among contemporary samples of white, black, Latino, and Asian households. Results from these models indicate that white households’ migration responses to minority racial concentrations are substantively similar in SIPP and PSID, with the likelihood of out-migration among whites increasing as minority shares grow, albeit weaker in SIPP than the PSID. Results for black householders are comparable across samples, with blacks demonstrating a tendency to leave Hispanic neighborhoods. Results for Hispanic households are, however, divergent between the SIPP and PSID, potentially reflecting differences in the representativeness of the samples. Lastly, the results from SIPP reveal that the mobility behaviors of Asian households are largely indifferent to neighborhood racial composition.
Willingness to pay for female-made wine: Evidence from an online experiment
Alicia Gallais & Florine Livat
Journal of Wine Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
The wine industry, considered to be male-dominated, has seen a growing share of women winemakers. Using a randomized online experiment, we investigate how the producer’s gender influences consumers’ willingness to pay for the wine. Gender can be identified either from the first name of the producer or from a gendered group of wine producers. Using a Tobit and a double-hurdle model, our results suggest that consumers’ willingness to pay is lower for wine produced by female winemaker groups. This reduction appears to be particularly pronounced when the consumer is male.