Fitting the mold
The Red Sneakers Effect: Inferring Status and Competence From Signals of Nonconformity
Silvia Bellezza, Francesca Gino & Anat Keinan
Journal of Consumer Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examines how people react to nonconforming behaviors, such as entering a luxury boutique wearing gym clothes rather than an elegant outfit or wearing red sneakers in a professional setting. Nonconforming behaviors, as costly and visible signals, can act as a particular form of conspicuous consumption and lead to positive inferences of status and competence in the eyes of others. A series of studies demonstrates that people confer higher status and competence to nonconforming rather than conforming individuals. These positive inferences derived from signals of nonconformity are mediated by perceived autonomy and moderated by individual differences in need for uniqueness in the observers. An investigation of boundary conditions demonstrates that the positive inferences disappear when the observer is unfamiliar with the environment, when the nonconforming behavior is depicted as unintentional, and in the absence of expected norms and shared standards of formal conduct.
----------------------
Choice-Based Discrimination: Labor-Force-Type Discrimination Against Gay Men, the Obese, and Mothers
Tamar Kricheli-Katz
Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, December 2013, Pages 670–695
Abstract:
Do perceptions of controllability and choice affect the nature and magnitude of discrimination? Many groups of people, who hold seemingly controllable devalued traits, including gay men, the obese, and mothers, are discriminated against both in the labor force and in other areas of life. In this article, I show that perceptions of choice and controllability generate discrimination against individuals with seemingly controllable stigmatized traits. I use a hiring experiment in a highly controlled setting to assess this argument. The results provide strong evidence for a causal relationship between perceptions of choice and labor-force-type discrimination against gay men, obese men, and mothers. When the traits were presented as voluntary, gay men, obese men, and mothers were penalized when compared to their equally qualified counterparts in terms of hiring, salary recommendations, and competence evaluations.
----------------------
Placing Racial Stereotypes in Context: Social Desirability and the Politics of Racial Hostility
Christopher Weber et al.
American Journal of Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research indicates that diversity at the level of larger geographic units (e.g., counties) is linked to white racial hostility. However, research has not addressed whether diverse local contexts may strengthen or weaken the relationship between racial stereotypes and policy attitudes. In a statewide opinion survey, we find that black-white racial diversity at the zip-code level strengthens the connection between racial stereotypes and race-related policy attitudes among whites. Moreover, this effect is most pronounced among low self-monitors, individuals who are relatively immune to the effects of egalitarian social norms likely to develop within a racially diverse local area. We find that this racializing effect is most evident for stereotypes (e.g., African Americans are “violent”) that are “relevant” to a given policy (e.g., capital punishment). Our findings lend nuance to research on the political effects of racial attitudes and confirm the racializing political effects of diverse residential settings on white Americans.
----------------------
A Comparison of Skin Tone Discrimination Among African American Men: 1995 and 2003
Ekeoma Uzogara et al.
Psychology of Men & Masculinity, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated perceptions of skin tone discrimination among adult African American men. Research has suggested that through negative African American stereotypes, out-group members (Whites) perceive light-skinned African Americans favorably and dark-skinned African Americans unfavorably. However, it is unclear how treatment by in-group members (other African Americans) uniquely affects men. Using data from the 1995 Detroit Area Study and the 2003 National Survey of American Life, we investigated these relationships among African American men representing a wide range of socioeconomic groups. We found that African American men’s perceptions of out-group and in-group treatment, respectively, were similar across time. Light-skinned men perceived the least out-group discrimination while dark-skinned men perceived the most out-group discrimination. In appraisals of skin tone discrimination from in-group members, medium-skinned men perceived the least discrimination, while both light- and dark-skinned men perceived more in-group discrimination. Additionally, men of lower social economic groups were more affected by skin tone bias than others. Future research should explore the influence of these out- and in-group experiences of skin tone discrimination on social and psychological functioning of African American men.
----------------------
The Criminal Justice System and the Racialization of Perceptions
Aliya Saperstein, Andrew Penner & Jessica Kizer
ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, January 2014, Pages 104-121
Abstract:
Recent research on how contact with the criminal justice system shapes racial perceptions in the United States has shown that incarceration increases the likelihood that people are racially classified by others as black, and decreases the likelihood that they are classified as white. We extend this work, using longitudinal data with information on whether respondents have been arrested, convicted, or incarcerated, and details about their most recent arrest. This allows us to ask whether any contact with the criminal justice system triggers racialization, or only certain types of contact. Additional racial categories allow us to explore the racialization of crime beyond the black-white divide. Results indicate even one arrest significantly increases the odds of subsequently being classified as black, and decreases the odds of being classified as white or Asian. This implies a broader impact of increased policing and mass incarceration on racialization and stereotyping, with consequences for social interactions, political attitudes, and research on inequality.
----------------------
Janet Lydecker et al.
Eating Behaviors, January 2014, Pages 76–82
Objective: As a novel investigation of the role of White racial identity, the current study explored the link between White guilt and disordered eating.
Participants: Young adult women (N = 375), 200 of whom self-identified as White.
Methods: Measures assessed disordered eating, trait guilt, White guilt, and affect.
Results: White guilt is interrelated with disordered eating, particularly bulimic symptomatology. Distress tolerance and tendency to experience negative affect moderated the relation between White guilt and several disordered eating variables.
Conclusions: Exploration of White guilt in clinical and research settings can inform understanding and treatment of disordered eating.
----------------------
Katie Van Loo & Robert Rydell
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research examined whether simply watching videos of a man behaving dominantly toward a woman during a math-related interaction hurts women’s math performance. Men and women watched videos of male–female interactions related to math (stereotype-relevant) or studying (stereotype-neutral) in which the male was dominant, the female was dominant, or the two were equally dominant. Women who watched a video of a dominant male in a math interaction showed reduced math performance and had greater worries about confirming negative in-group math stereotypes than when the video showed a studying interaction; however, women who watched a video of a man and woman equal in dominance or a dominant female did not show such performance decrements and worries. These effects did not occur for men. This work suggests that brief video exposure to male dominant behavior aimed at a female in a math context can lead women to experience stereotype threat and underperform.
----------------------
Marc-André Reinhard, Simon Schindler & Dagmar Stahlberg
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous research has demonstrated that failure on a task may at times increase self-esteem, known as the failure-as-an-asset effect. This effect is observed when high-status group members (e.g., referring to management positions: men) show poor performance in a domain that is seen as a low-status domain — one in which the low-status group (e.g., referring to management positions: women) typically outperforms the high-status group. In line with social identity theory, in this case the poor performance leads high-status group members to a strong identification with the high-status ingroup, resulting in higher state self-esteem. However, social identity theory originally refers not only to self-evaluation, but also to the influence on individual behavior. Building on that, we predicted that if high-status group members show higher ingroup identification after negative individual feedback in a low-status domain, they should also show stronger ingroup prototypical behavior. A great deal of research has indicated that women’s behavior is more risk-averse than is men’s behavior. Thus, men should show riskier behavior after a poor performance on a test in which women outperform men. Two studies support our hypothesis. Men with an alleged individual low performance on a fictitious test reported riskier behavioral intentions (Experiment 1), and actually showed riskier behavior in an investment game (Experiment 2), when men were outperformed by women rather than when women were outperformed by men. The opposite pattern was found for men with an individual positive performance. As predicted, these effects were mediated by men’s gender identification. Practical implications are discussed.
----------------------
Victoria Brescoll, Eric Luis Uhlmann & George Newman
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, December 2013, Pages 891-908
Abstract:
People have a fundamental motive to view their social system as just, fair, and good and will engage in a number of strategies to rationalize the status quo (Jost & Banaji, 1994). We propose that one way in which individuals may “justify the system” is through endorsement of essentialist explanations, which attribute group differences to deep, essential causes. We suggest that system-justifying motives lead to greater endorsement of essentialist explanations because those explanations portray group differences as immutable. Study 1 employed an established system threat manipulation. We found that activating system-justifying motives increases both male and female participants’ endorsement of essentialist explanations for gender differences and that this effect is mediated by beliefs in immutability. In Study 2, we used a goal contagion manipulation and found that both male and female participants primed with a system-justifying goal are significantly more likely to agree with essentialist explanations for gender differences. Study 3 demonstrated that providing an opportunity to explicitly reject a system threat (an alternative means of satisfying the goal to defend the system) attenuates system threat effects on endorsement of essentialist explanations, further suggesting that this process is motivated. Finally, Studies 4a and 4b dissociated the type of cause (biological vs. social) from whether group differences are portrayed as mutable versus immutable and found that system threat increases endorsement of immutable explanations, independent of the type of cause.
----------------------
Competition in stereotyped domains: Competition, social comparison, and stereotype threat
Katie Van Loo et al.
European Journal of Social Psychology, December 2013, Pages 648–660
Abstract:
The current work examines a novel and specific way in which competition can hurt the performance of negatively stereotyped individuals: by evoking stereotype threat. In four experiments, we demonstrate that women's underperformance in math when primed with competition was due to feeling worried about confirming negative stereotypes about women's math ability (i.e., stereotype threat), that the activation of negative performance stereotypes for women primed with competition was due to increased group-level social comparisons (i.e., comparing the self with men and women), and that priming competition led men to perform more poorly than women in a domain where they are negatively stereotyped (i.e., verbal ability). This research suggests that priming people with competition in contexts where they are negatively stereotyped leads to greater social comparison, activation of negative stereotypes, and concern about confirming these stereotypes, thereby decreasing stereotyped individuals' performance in the stereotyped domain.
----------------------
Chiara Fini et al.
Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, November 2013
Abstract:
We come to understand other people's physical and mental states by re-mapping their bodily states onto our sensorimotor system. This process, also called somatosensory resonance, is an essential ability for social cognition and is stronger when observing ingroup than outgroup members. Here we investigated, first, whether implicit racial bias constrains somatosensory resonance, and second, whether increasing the ingroup/outgroup perceived physical similarity results in an increase in the somatosensory resonance for outgroup members. We used the Visual Remapping of Touch effect as an index of individuals' ability in resonating with the others, and the Implicit Association Test to measure racial bias. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to detect near-threshold tactile stimuli delivered to their own face while viewing either an ingroup or an outgroup face receiving a similar stimulation. Our results showed that individuals' tactile accuracy when viewing an outgroup face being touched was negatively correlated to their implicit racial bias. In Experiment 2, participants received the interpersonal multisensory stimulation (IMS) while observing an outgroup member. IMS has been found to increase the perceived physical similarity between the observer's and the observed body. We tested whether such increase in ingroup/outgroup perceived physical similarity increased the remapping ability for outgroup members. We found that after sharing IMS experience with an outgroup member, tactile accuracy when viewing touch on outgroup faces increased. Interestingly, participants with stronger implicit bias against the outgroup showed larger positive change in the remapping. We conclude that shared multisensory experiences might represent one key way to improve our ability to resonate with others by overcoming the boundaries between ingroup and outgroup categories.
----------------------
Awareness of Implicit Attitudes
Adam Hahn et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research on implicit attitudes has raised questions about how well people know their own attitudes. Most research on this question has focused on the correspondence between measures of implicit attitudes and measures of explicit attitudes, with low correspondence interpreted as showing that people have little awareness of their implicit attitudes. We took a different approach and directly asked participants to predict their results on upcoming Implicit Association Test (IAT) measures of implicit attitudes toward 5 social groups. We found that participants were surprisingly accurate in their predictions. Across 4 studies, predictions were accurate regardless of whether implicit attitudes were described as true attitudes or culturally learned associations (Studies 1 and 2), regardless of whether predictions were made as specific response patterns (Study 1) or as conceptual responses (Studies 2–4), and regardless of how much experience or explanation participants received before making their predictions (Study 4). Study 3 further suggested that participants’ predictions reflected unique insight into their own implicit responses, beyond intuitions about how people in general might respond. Prediction accuracy occurred despite generally low correspondence between implicit and explicit measures of attitudes, as found in prior research. Altogether, the research findings cast doubt on the belief that attitudes or evaluations measured by the IAT necessarily reflect unconscious attitudes.
----------------------
Fluid Movement and Fluid Social Cognition: Bodily Movement Influences Essentialist Thought
Michael Slepian et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Rigid social categorization can lead to negative social consequences such as stereotyping and prejudice. The authors hypothesized that bodily experiences of fluidity would promote fluidity in social-categorical thinking. Across a series of experiments, fluid movements compared with nonfluid movements led to more fluid lay theories of social categories, more fluidity in social categorization, and consequences of fluid social-categorical thinking, decreased stereotype endorsement, and increased concern for social inequalities. The role of sensorimotor states in fluid social cognition, with consequences for social judgment and behavior, is discussed.
----------------------
Raphael Silberzahn & Eric Luis Uhlmann
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the field study reported here (N = 222,924), we found that Germans with noble-sounding surnames, such as Kaiser (“emperor”), König (“king”), and Fürst (“prince”), more frequently hold managerial positions than Germans with last names that either refer to common everyday occupations, such as Koch (“cook”), Bauer (“farmer”), and Becker/Bäcker (“baker”), or do not refer to any social role. This phenomenon occurs despite the fact that noble-sounding surnames never indicated that the person actually held a noble title. Because of basic properties of associative cognition, the status linked to a name may spill over to its bearer and influence his or her occupational outcomes.
----------------------
Innocuous Ignorance?: Perceptions of the American Jewish Population Size
Daniel Herda
Contemporary Jewry, October 2013, Pages 241-255
Abstract:
The current study examines the extent and correlates of ignorance regarding the size of the American Jewish population. Using the 2000 General Social Survey, I examine how large the non-Jewish respondents perceive the Jewish population to be in both the country as a whole and in their local community. Individuals of all backgrounds are found to express high levels of Jewish population innumeracy, with the vast majority overestimating. I then attempt to understand variation in estimates using hypotheses based on heuristic decision-making. Larger size estimates at the country level are most often associated with media exposure, gender, and education. At the community level, larger estimates are related most strongly to interpersonal contact with Jews. Surprisingly, size estimates are largely unrelated to stereotypes or negative attitudes toward Jews. This unique finding suggests that, contrary to the existing literature, inflated perceptions are not uniformly problematic for intergroup relations. Rather, innumeracy regarding US Jews appears to be largely innocuous and without basis in anti-Semitism.
----------------------
Distinct Heritable Influences Underpin In-Group Love and Out-Group Derogation
G.J. Lewis, C. Kandler & R. Riemann
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In-group favoritism has often been conceptualized as the flip side of out-group derogation. Whereas research has dissociated these attitudes at the phenotypic level, it is currently unknown whether such dissociation is also evident at the biological level. Here, using an adult German twin sample, which provided ratings on patriotism, nationalism, and prejudice, we tested whether common or distinct heritable influences best explained variation in in-group love and out-group derogation. Results indicated that independent genetic effects accounted for individual differences in in-group love (i.e., patriotism) and out-group derogation (i.e., prejudice). In addition, we observed that nationalism showed common genetic links to both patriotism and prejudice, albeit through distinct pathways. These findings suggest that in-group sentiment is complex at the genetic level as well as at the behavioral level. Future work is recommended to further delineate the specific biological processes underlying these heritable effects.
----------------------
Embodying the Moral Code? Thirty Years of Final Girls in Slasher Films
Angela Weaver et al.
Psychology of Popular Media Culture, forthcoming
Abstract:
The slasher film is a subgenre of horror characterized by suspenseful scenes emphasizing victims’ fear of an antagonist and depicting graphic violence. A well-recognized characteristic of the slasher formula is the potential for viewers to quickly predict the fate of each character. Slasher films are thought to include a character known as the Final Girl who, by virtue of her refusal to engage in licentious behavior, is rewarded with survival. Although books and essays have advanced hypotheses regarding the characteristics of the Final Girl, empirical analysis has been lacking. We predicted that Final Girls would be more likely than other female characters to adhere to the traditional sexual script (e.g., less likely to engage in sexual behavior or wear revealing clothing), to exhibit prosocial behavior (i.e., the Just World Theory), and to demonstrate agency (e.g., fight behaviors). A quantitative content analysis of the 10 highest-grossing slasher films of each of the past three decades (i.e., 30 films with 226 primary characters) was performed. Relative to other female characters, Final Girls were more likely to be rated as attractive, were less likely to be shown nude or engaging in significant onscreen sexual behavior, demonstrated more prosocial behaviors as well as more agentic survival-oriented behaviors against the antagonist, and were more likely to demonstrate an androgynous gender role. Exploratory analyses of the characteristics of surviving male characters (Final Boys) are also presented. Implications of these findings for widespread cultural beliefs about women, men, and the traditional sexual script are considered.
----------------------
Their pain, our pleasure: Stereotype content and schadenfreude
Mina Cikara & Susan Fiske
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, September 2013, Pages 52–59
Abstract:
People often fail to empathize with others, and sometimes even experience schadenfreude — pleasure at others’ misfortunes. One potent predictor of schadenfreude is envy, which, according to the stereotype content model, is elicited by high-status, competitive targets. Here we review our recent research program investigating the relationships among stereotypes, envy, schadenfreude, and harm. Experiment 1 demonstrates that stereotypes are sufficient to influence affective responses to targets’ misfortunes; participants not only report feeling less negative when misfortunes befall high-status, competitive targets as compared to other targets, they also smile more (assessed with facial EMG). Experiment 2 replicates the self-report findings from Experiment 1 and assesses behavioral tendencies toward envied targets; participants are more willing to endorse harming high-status, competitive targets as compared to other targets. Experiment 3 turns off the schadenfreude response by manipulating status and competition-relevant information regarding envied targets. Finally, Experiment 4 investigates affective and neural markers of intergroup envy and schadenfreude in the context of a long-standing sports rivalry and the extent to which neurophysiological correlates of schadenfreude are related to self-reported likelihood of harming rival team fans. We conclude with implications and future directions.
----------------------
Implicit Bias and the Illusion of Conscious Ill Will.
Erin Cooley, Keith Payne & Jean Phillips
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Implicit bias is defined, in part, by a lack of intent. Yet the implicit attitudes literature has made little contact with research on the experience of conscious will, which suggests that the feeling of conscious intent is an inference rather than a direct report of how actions are caused. We tested the hypothesis that inferences about one’s intentions shape whether an automatically activated attitude is endorsed explicitly. In a first study, individuals who perceived their attitudes toward gay men to be intended showed stronger implicit–explicit correspondence. In a second study, we manipulated perceptions of intent. Inferences that implicit bias was intended caused participants to express those biases on an explicit measure. A third study replicated the experimental effects and found that metacognitions of intent were especially influential among individuals who were motivated to be unprejudiced. Results suggest that metacognitive inferences about intent can shape whether automatically activated bias becomes explicitly endorsed prejudice.