Counting Impressions
Indirect Intergroup Bargaining: An Evolutionary Psychological Theory of Microaggression
Miriam Lindner & Max Krasnow
Evolutionary Psychological Science, December 2022, Pages 478–492
Abstract:
The microaggression concept has been discussed in the academic literature and public discourse, but the nature -- and even existence -- of microaggressions remains controversial. Here, we introduce an evolutionary psychological theory of how microaggressions may result from an evolved cognitive architecture for intergroup bargaining. According to this theory, microaggressions constitute a form of low-cost, plausibly ambiguous intergroup aggression used in contexts of perceived intergroup power equilibria featuring advantageous inequality. The behavioral output of the system in this context is designed to be indirect because more direct communication should readily create common knowledge on the part of the marginalized target group, thus risking a compensatory coordinated outrage response. This approach helps explain the cross-cultural variance in which microaggressions have been remarked upon and where they have not, individual differences in endorsement of the microaggression concept, features of the psychological response to microaggressions, and the selective deployment of bargaining tactics such as the maintenance of group dominance hierarchies.
The impact of social identity conflict on planning horizons
Yiqi Yu & Ying Zhang
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the current increasingly complex environment, people often hold multiple social identities. For example, an Asian American may identify as both an American and an Asian descendant, and a mixed-race person may simultaneously identify with both races. Whenever the different identities are simultaneously activated and give conflicting behavioral direction, people experience social identity conflict. Seven studies, using both measured and manipulated social identity conflict in surveys, secondary data, and controlled experiments, showed that social identity conflict shortens one’s planning horizon in future-oriented choices. This effect occurs because the conflict between one’s multiple social identities undermines the clarity in self-perception, and in turn weakens the enduring sense of self in the temporal dimension. Consequently, it anchors people’s planning horizon to a more proximate future.
Language, Skin Tone, and Attitudes toward Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria
Viviana Rivera-Burgos
American Political Science Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Understanding the factors that lead Americans to racialize putatively race-neutral policies is increasingly important in a diversifying society. This paper focuses on the case of disaster relief for Puerto Ricans in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. I draw on a framework of racial and ethnic subordination with two dimensions: inferiority-superiority, operationalized by skin color, and foreignness-Americanness, operationalized by language. I conduct a nationally representative survey experiment that varies the skin tone (light or dark) and language (English or Spanish) of otherwise similar actors who portray hurricane victims. The results suggest that two stigmatized attributes, dark skin and foreign language, do not always render an individual “doubly stigmatized.” Instead, for an already racialized group like Puerto Ricans, perceived foreignness may offset Americans’ stereotypes about the cultural pathologies of a racial underclass. Therefore, this paper underscores the importance of a multidimensional and intersectional approach to the study of racial and ethnic politics.
Community-level age bias and older adult mortality
Alexander Kellogg et al.
Social Science & Medicine, forthcoming
Methods: Explicit and implicit attitudes toward older adults (N = 1,001,735), sexual minorities (N = 791,966), and Black Americans (N = 2,255,808) were drawn from Project Implicit. Post-stratification relative to U.S. Census demographics was executed to improve the representativeness of county-level explicit and implicit bias estimates. County older adult mortality, estimated cross-sectionally with and longitudinally relative to bias scores, served as outcomes. Models controlled for relevant county-level covariates (e.g., median age) and included all U.S. counties (N = 3142).
Results: Contrary to hypotheses but consistent with prior work, explicit age bias was cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with lower mortality, over and above covariates and generalized community bias. The explicit age bias-lower mortality association only emerged in younger counties but did not depend on county ethnic composition. Implicit age bias was unassociated with outcomes. Post-hoc analyses supported that ageist communities may be associated with better health across the lifespan. Explicit age bias predicted lower mortality in young and middle adulthood; better mental health in middle adulthood, but not exercise or self-rated health, mediated the explicit age bias-older adult mortality association.
Party, Race, and Neutrality: Investigating the Interdependence of Attitudes toward Social Groups
Jordan Brensinger & Ramina Sotoudeh
American Sociological Review, forthcoming
Abstract:
Recent public and scholarly discourse suggests that partisanship informs how people feel about social groups in the United States by organizing those groups into camps of political friends and enemies. More generally, this implies that Americans’ attitudes toward social groups exhibit interdependence, a heretofore underexplored proposition. We develop a conceptual and methodological approach to investigating such interdependence and apply it to attitudes toward 17 social groups, the broadest set of measures available to date. We identify three subpopulations with distinct attitude logics: partisans, who feel warm toward groups commonly associated with their political party and cool toward those linked to the out-party; racials, distinguished by their consistently warmer or cooler feelings toward all racial groups relative to other forms of social group membership; and neutrals, who generally evaluate social groups neither warmly nor coolly. Individuals’ social positions and experiences, particularly the strength of their partisanship, their race, and their experience of racial discrimination, inform how they construe the social space. These findings shed light on contemporary political and social divisions while expanding the toolkit available for the study of attitudes toward social groups.
The portrayal of mental illness in popular children's programs on Netflix: A content and thematic analysis
Deirdre Donohue & Lorraine Swords
Psychology of Popular Media, forthcoming
Abstract:
Children's television has been identified as a potential contributor to the development of stigma toward people with mental illnesses. This study investigates how mental illness is portrayed in popular children's programs on Netflix, through references to mental illness and characters who are labeled as having a mental illness. A descriptive content analysis was conducted on approximately 2.5 hr of episodes from each of the 40 children's programs listed as “Popular on Netflix” in January 2021, resulting in a sample of 339 episodes totaling 107.25 hr in duration. A follow-up inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the episodes identified as containing characters with mental illness. A total of 118 references were identified in 58% of programs, which were almost exclusively disrespectful slang terms such as “crazy,” “insane,” and “nuts,” and were most commonly used to disparage others or to indicate dangerousness. Fifteen characters were identified as having a mental illness and were portrayed as dangerous, unpredictable, and untrustworthy, to which others responded with violence, fear, and avoidance. The inductive thematic analysis showed that violence was emphasized in male characters while obsessiveness was emphasized in female characters. These characters were also often portrayed as socially isolated, aggressive villains who presented a challenge to be overcome by the main character(s), before receiving a justified negative outcome. These negative portrayals may contribute to the development of stigma toward people with mental illnesses in children, although further research is needed before confident conclusions can be made.
Biogeographic ancestry information facilitates genetic racial essentialism: Consequences for race-based judgments
Drexler James & Courtney Bonam
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Direct-to-consumer genetic ancestry tests measure biogeographic ancestry (BGA), which refers to an individual's ancestral origin in relation to major population groups. There is growing concern that biogeographic information exaggerates both false beliefs about racial genetic differences and, ultimately, racial bias. Across three studies (N = 1317), we find that biogeographic information impacts racial categorization and beliefs about both genetic racial essentialism (i.e., the extent to which people believe that race is genetically derived) and biological race differences. Specifically, we find people are more likely to categorize Black/White biracial targets as Black and believe that a target is more biologically different from White people (e.g., has thicker skin) as the target's percent sub-Saharan African biogeographic ancestry (ABGA) increases (Studies 1 and 2). We also find that people misrepresent BGA as “race genes,” such that they perceive Black/White biracial targets with more ABGA as sharing more genes with Black people, which then predicts greater Black racial categorization of the target and increased beliefs that the target is susceptible to certain physical and mental illnesses (Study 2). Notably, BGA remains a predictor of these outcomes even when people know the target's specific racial ancestry, that is, their exact number of Black grandparents (Study 2). Finally, we find that exposing people to the idea that race is genetically derived, compared to biologically derived, exaggerates beliefs that genes determine both human life (genetic essentialism) and racial categories (genetic racial essentialism; Study 3). We discuss implications for studying psychological essentialism, racial bias, and racial health disparities.
Racial and Ethnic Differences in Bystander CPR for Witnessed Cardiac Arrest
Angel Garcia et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 27 October 2022, Pages 1569-1578
Methods: Within a large U.S. registry, we identified 110,054 witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during the period from 2013 through 2019. We used a hierarchical logistic regression model to analyze the incidence of bystander CPR in Black or Hispanic persons as compared with White persons with witnessed cardiac arrests at home and in public locations. We analyzed the overall incidence as well as the incidence according to neighborhood racial or ethnic makeup and income strata. Neighborhoods were classified as predominantly White (>80% of residents), majority Black or Hispanic (>50% of residents), or integrated, and as high income (an annual median household income of >$80,000), middle income ($40,000–$80,000), or low income (<$40,000).
Results: Overall, 35,469 of the witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (32.2%) occurred in Black or Hispanic persons. Black and Hispanic persons were less likely to receive bystander CPR at home (38.5%) than White persons (47.4%) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 0.76) and less likely to receive bystander CPR in public locations than White persons (45.6% vs. 60.0%) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.66). The incidence of bystander CPR among Black and Hispanic persons was less than that among White persons not only in predominantly White neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.90) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.75) but also in majority Black or Hispanic neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.83) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.68) and in integrated neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.81) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.77). Similarly, across all neighborhood income strata, the frequency of bystander CPR at home and in public locations was lower among Black and Hispanic persons with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest than among White persons.
Entering the “foxhole”: Partisan media priming and the application of racial justice in America
Andrew Bell et al.
Research & Politics, November 2022
Abstract:
Can accessing a partisan media environment — irrespective of its content — change how Americans interpret and assess news? We examine this question by focusing on one of the most fraught issues in American society: racial justice. Although studies suggest that repeated exposure to right-leaning media messaging can amplify racial resentment, we leverage a pair of survey experiments to test whether merely seeing a conservative media masthead can make Whites render justice with racialized considerations. Results show that — even keeping the content of stories identical — entering a simulated right-leaning media environment significantly conditions racial attitudes. We find evidence of both anti-Black and pro-White biases that are activated when respondents consume information under the Fox News masthead. This study has important implications for understanding how partisan media priming shapes political views and the distinctive nature of racism in America.
The Political Effects of Opioid Addiction Frames
Tanika Raychaudhuri, Tali Mendelberg & Anne McDonough
Journal of Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Unlike media coverage of previous drug epidemics, coverage of opioids focuses on Whites and is often sympathetic. Treatment policies garner widespread support. Does sympathetic coverage of Whites cause support for public health over punishment? Does sympathetic coverage of Blacks have the same effect, or is sympathy racially selective? Prior research neglects these questions, focusing on negative messages about non-Whites. In preregistered experiments, including a national population-based survey, we vary both valence and race using fully controlled yet realistic news stories. Sympathetic frames of White and Black users both increase White support for treatment, but the former has larger effects. This racially selective sympathy is explained by racial attitudes. Unsympathetic frames have no effects, pointing to the limits of racial antipathy. Sympathetic stories about Blacks’ stigmatized behavior can increase support for assistance over punishment, but the weaker effect highlights the importance of racially selective sympathy as a distinct concept from racial antipathy.
Police agencies on Facebook overreport on Black suspects
Ben Grunwald, Julian Nyarko & John Rappaport
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 8 November 2022
Abstract:
A large and growing share of the American public turns to Facebook for news. On this platform, reports about crime increasingly come directly from law enforcement agencies, raising questions about content curation. We gathered all posts from almost 14,000 Facebook pages maintained by US law enforcement agencies, focusing on reporting about crime and race. We found that Facebook users are exposed to posts that overrepresent Black suspects by 25 percentage points relative to local arrest rates. This overexposure occurs across crime types and geographic regions and increases with the proportion of both Republican voters and non-Black residents. Widespread exposure to overreporting risks reinforcing racial stereotypes about crime and exacerbating punitive preferences among the polity more generally.
The upside of acknowledging prejudiced behavior
Aaron Moss et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
What do people think of those who respond to confrontation by acknowledging personally prejudiced behavior? In six experiments (N = 3344), people judged a man who made a prejudiced comment and responded to confrontation by acknowledging, denying, or, in some cases, saying nothing about his prejudice. Participants consistently evaluated someone who acknowledged prejudice as warmer, more moral, and ironically, less prejudiced than someone who denied. People also perceived acknowledging as more appropriate and less typical than denying regardless of whether the prejudice was racism or sexism. Moreover, men and women, White, Black, and Asian people alike evaluated acknowledgements more positively than denials. Evidence from multiple experiments suggests that people form more positive impressions of those who acknowledge than deny because acknowledgment signals more of a learning orientation to prejudice and intergroup relations. Although people frequently respond to confrontation by denying prejudiced behavior, there appears to be an upside to acknowledging.