Caricatured
Racial Minorities Face Discrimination From Across the Political Spectrum When Seeking to Form Ties on Social Media: Evidence From a Field Experiment
Krishnan Nair, Mohsen Mosleh & Maryam Kouchaki
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
We conducted a preregistered field experiment examining racial discrimination in tie formation on social media. We randomly assigned research accounts varying on race (Black, White) and politics (liberal/Democrat, conservative/Republican, neutral) to follow a politically balanced sample of Twitter (i.e., X) users (N = 5,951) who were unaware they were in a research study. We examined three predictions from the social and political psychology literatures: i) individuals favor White over Black targets, ii) this tendency is stronger for conservatives/Republicans than for liberals/Democrats, and iii) greater discrimination by conservatives/Republicans is explained by the assumption that racial minorities are liberal/Democrat. We found evidence that individuals were less likely to reciprocate social ties with Black accounts than White accounts. However, this tendency was not moderated by individuals’ political orientation, shared partisanship, or partisan mismatch. In sum, this work provides field experimental evidence for racial discrimination in tie formation on social media by individuals across political backgrounds.
Ecology stereotypes exist across societies and override race and family structure stereotypes
Oliver Sng et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Perceivers hold ecology stereotypes -- beliefs about how the environments others live in shape their behavior. Drawing upon a life history perspective, we examine the stereotypes people hold about those who live in relatively harsh and unpredictable ecologies. First, across diverse demographic groups and societies (the United States, India, Japan, Romania, the United Kingdom), people believe that individuals who live in harsh and unpredictable environments engage in “faster” behaviors (n = 2,078; ds from .80 to 2.14) -- that they are more impulsive, sexually unrestricted, opportunistic, and invest less in education and their own children (Studies 1, 2, and 3). Second, these ecology stereotypes seem to underlie certain Black/White race stereotypes held by White perceivers in the United States (Study 1) and family structure stereotypes (i.e., growing up in a single-mother home) held by perceivers in both Japan and the United States (Studies 4a and 5a). Supporting this, the application of these race and family structure stereotypes is overridden or attenuated when perceivers are presented with direct information about a specific person’s ecology (Studies 1, 4A, and 5B). Third, beliefs that there is high ecological mobility within a society reduce the magnitude of ecology stereotypes (Study 3), as one would expect if ecology stereotypes function to help perceivers better predict others’ behavior. Last, ecology stereotypes do not seem to be just general valence biases or to simply reflect social class stereotypes. In sum, ecology stereotypes may be an influential but relatively unexamined type of stereotype, with broad implications for thinking about other group stereotypes.
Multiracials' affective, behavioral and identity-specific responses to identity denial
Payton Small
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, November 2024
Abstract:
Multiracial individuals commonly experience instances of identity denial, in which their racial identities are questioned, invalidated and/or rejected by others. The present research examined majority-minority Multiracials' forecasted and actual responses to identity denial experiences, specifically investigating whether the race of the denied identity (White vs racial minority) and race of the identity denial perpetrator (White vs racial minority) differentially impact the experience of identity denial. In Study 1, participants (N = 247) who imagined having their racial minority (vs White) identity denied forecasted stronger negative affective responses and likelihood of identity reassertion, irrespective of the racial identity of the denial perpetrator. Study 2 found participants (N = 85) whose racial minority identity was experimentally denied reported stronger active negative affect (e.g., anger) and were more likely to reassert their identity. Additionally, Study 2 examined three racial identity-specific processes -- self-presentation, self-perception and self-identification -- impacted by identity denial experiences. Multiracials whose racial minority identity was denied by a White perpetrator perceived their own racial identity, presented their racial identity to others and shifted their racial self-identification in alignment with their racially minoritized identity. The opposite pattern occurred among Multiracial individuals whose racial minority identity was denied by a racial minority perpetrator. The findings imply the specific components of an identity denial experience (race of denied identity and race of denial perpetrator) are important for predicting how Multiracials experience and respond to instances of identity denial.
Analytic racecraft: Race-based averages create illusory group differences in perceptions of racism
Joel Martinez
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research practices used by social scientists to understand and dismantle the psychological foundations that uphold racist hierarchies can backfire when they rely on racecraft. Racecraft ideology assumes the reality of race(s), an assumption that shapes study designs and inferences to the detriment of theoretical and practical goals. I showcase how racecraft manifests in studies seeking to quantify how perceptions of sociopolitical stimuli differ across racialized perceivers (e.g., black, white, latinx). The typical analysis for quantifying perceptions focuses on comparing group averages, which assumes the existence of discrete “races” whose perceptions can be sufficiently summarized by averages. Across three studies, I used variance component analyses on racism ratings of anti-immigrant tweets from differently racialized perceivers (N = 1,211) to show there was much larger disagreement than agreement within race categories, even when there were average differences in perceptions across race categories. This analysis shows how analytic practices can bolster different assumptions about the nature of race, some of which reify the illusion that race categories are stable cohesive groups. Researchers can improve their analytic inferences and avoid producing race-reifying caricatures of peoples’ perceptions by adding variance mapping to their toolkits and attending to racialization as a dynamic process -- needed improvements within the psychological study of race and racism, group-based beliefs, and antiracist research endeavors.
Divergence and Convergence across Presumed and Actual Stereotypes
Trenton Mize
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, September 2024
Abstract:
Stereotypes are foundational to social life, with warmth and competence key to views of social groups. Some theoretical and empirical work on stereotypes focuses on personal “first-order” beliefs about social groups. Other work focuses on perceptions of a culture’s stereotypes, or “generalized second-order” beliefs. Scholars differ in which they consider to have greater impact or whether they think they are unique or represent the same underlying belief. In this visualization, I present data from a large online survey experiment (N = 1,045) in which participants reported either first-order or generalized second-order stereotypes about 19 different social groups. For the majority of stereotypes measured, the results differ across the two methods, with perceptions of culture more pessimistic than people’s actual first-order beliefs would suggest. That is, people tend to assume that others hold more negative stereotypes than they actually do, and this is especially pronounced for negatively viewed social groups.
Conspiracy Beliefs and the Perception of Intergroup Inequalities
Kenzo Nera et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Conspiracy beliefs are prevalent among members of disadvantaged groups. Adopting a social identity perspective, we hypothesized that these beliefs would reduce the endorsement of internal attributions for inequalities that could negatively affect the image of disadvantaged ingroups. In Study 1 (n = 1,104), conspiracy mentality was negatively associated with meritocracy beliefs, which attribute success and failure to internal factors. In Studies 2 to 5 (ns = 179, 251, 221, 248), taking the perspective of a person exhibiting a high (vs. low) conspiracy mentality in a fictitious context reduced participants’ meritocracy beliefs, internal attributions for a privileged outgroup’s situation, and fostered negative attitudes toward the outgroup. However, it did not reduce internal attributions for the situation of a disadvantaged ingroup, nor did it improve attitudes toward the ingroup. Regarding intergroup comparison, conspiracy mentality seems to primarily deteriorate the perception of privileged outgroups rather than improve the perception of disadvantaged ingroups.
On the Unequal Burden of Obesity: Obesity’s Adverse Consequences Are Contingent on Regional Obesity Prevalence
Jana Berkessel et al.
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Obesity has adverse consequences for those affected. We tested whether the association between obesity and its adverse consequences is reduced in regions in which obesity is prevalent and whether lower weight bias in high-obese regions can account for this reduction. Studies 1 and 2 used data from the United States (N = 2,846,132 adults across 2,546 counties) and United Kingdom (N = 180,615 adults across 380 districts) that assessed obesity’s adverse consequences in diverse domains: close relationships, economic outcomes, and health. Both studies revealed that the association between obesity and its adverse consequences is reduced (or absent) in high-obese regions. Study 3 used another large-scale data set (N = 409,837 across 2,928 U.S. counties) and revealed that lower weight bias in high-obese regions seems to account for (i.e., mediate) the reduction in obesity’s adverse consequences. Overall, our findings suggest that obesity’s adverse consequences are partly social and, thus, not inevitable.
Assessing Bias Toward a Black or White Simulated Patient with Obesity in a Virtual Reality-Based Genomics Encounter
Susan Persky et al.
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, forthcoming
Abstract:
Interpersonal bias based on weight and race is widespread in the clinical setting; it is crucial to investigate how emerging genomics technologies will interact with and influence such biases in the future. The current study uses a virtual reality (VR) simulation to investigate the influence of apparent patient race and provision of genomic information on medical students’ implicit and explicit bias toward a virtual patient with obesity. Eighty-four third- and fourth-year medical students (64% female, 42% White) were randomized to interact with a simulated virtual patient who appeared as Black versus White, and to receive genomic risk information for the patient versus a control report. We assessed biased behavior during the simulated encounter and self-reported attitudes toward the virtual patient. Medical student participants tended to express more negative attitudes toward the White virtual patient than the Black virtual patient (both of whom had obesity) when genomic information was absent from the encounter. When genomic risk information was provided, this more often mitigated bias for the White virtual patient, whereas negative attitudes and bias against the Black virtual patient either remained consistent or increased. These patterns underscore the complexity of intersectional identities in clinical settings. Provision of genomic risk information was enough of a contextual shift to alter attitudes and behavior. This research leverages VR simulation to provide an early look at how emerging genomic technologies may differentially influence bias and stereotyping in clinical encounters.
Embracing Generational Labels: An Analysis of Self-Identification and Political Partisanship
Andrew Lindner, Sophia Stelboum & Azizul Hakim
Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, September 2024
Abstract:
Despite the popularity of generational labels like Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, and Gen Z in mass media, social scientists have debated their usefulness and accuracy in research. Consequently, little is known about the actual rate of self-identification with these generational labels in the U.S. population. This study investigated these labels as social identities and examined the extent of intragenerational variation in identification rates by birth year. Additionally, we explored the associations among political partisanship, demographic factors, and generational self-identification. Using logistic regression analyses of data from a nationally representative survey of 1,478 Americans, we find that a majority of respondents self-identify with a generational label, but individuals with birth years in the middle of the generational range exhibit much higher rates of self-identification. However, our analysis reveals little evidence for variation in generational self-identification based on party, race, or other demographic characteristics.
In control but uninspired: Displays of artist self-control undermine perceptions of creativity
Michail Kokkoris & Olga Stavrova
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research highlighted the interpersonal benefits of self-control in professional contexts: People prefer high self-control individuals as work or study partners and expect them to perform better than low self-control individuals. We show that these benefits of self-control reverse in the artistic domain. Results of one pilot study and five preregistered online experiments (N = 1644) reveal that artists with high (vs. low) self-control are perceived as less creative. This effect replicates across various artistic domains (visual art, music, poetry, screenwriting), holds for both male and female artists and can be explained by perceptions of lower experiential processing, which is considered indispensable for creativity. However, art created by high (vs. low) self-control artists is ascribed higher market value due to stronger attributions of productivity. These findings provide novel insights into the social perception of self-control and contribute to the understudied topic of the downsides of self-control as well as to the literature on lay theories of creativity.