Group Thinking
Investigating the Health Consequences for White Americans Who Believe White Americans Are Wealthy
Erin Cooley et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Poor White Americans report feeling “worse off” than poor Black Americans despite the persistent negative effects of racism on Black Americans. Additionally, some health issues are rising among White but not Black Americans. Across two representative samples, we test whether White = wealthy stereotypes lead White Americans to feel relatively worse off than their racial group and whether these perceptions have health consequences. Across both samples, White Americans perceived their own status to be significantly lower than the status of the majority of White Americans. In contrast, Black Americans perceived their own status to be significantly higher than the majority of Black Americans. Critically, status comparisons between the self and one’s racial group predicted the experience of fewer positive emotions among White, but not Black, Americans, which mediated reduced mental and physical health. We conclude that race/class stereotypes may shape how poverty subjectively feels.
Fighting death with health inequality: The role of mortality cognition and shifting racial demographics in policy attitudes
Tyler Jimenez, Peter Helm & Jamie Arndt
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
White Americans are predicted to soon comprise less than half of the U.S. population. Such demographic changes can affect political attitudes by threatening group status. The present studies built from this literature to examine a process in which information about such demographic shifts can also affect health policy attitudes, in part by increasing death-related thoughts, and that health inequalities may in turn buffer such cognitions. Three experiments (N = 1,651) adopted a causal chain approach to test these ideas. In Study 1, exposure to demographic changes decreased support for equitable health policies. In Study 2, the demographic manipulation increased death-thought accessibility, unless paired with information about worsening health inequalities. In Study 3, contemplation of mortality lessened both support for equitable health policies and resources allocated to health equity. Health inequalities may mitigate existential concerns raised by shifting racial demographics.
When Transparency Fails: Bias and Financial Incentives in Ridesharing Platforms
Jorge Mejia & Chris Parker
Management Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Providing transparency into operational processes can change consumer and worker behavior. However, it is unclear whether operational transparency is beneficial with potentially biased service providers. We explore this in the context of ridesharing platforms where early evidence documents bias similar to what has been observed in traditional transportation systems. Platforms responded by reducing operational transparency through removing information about riders’ gender and race from the ride request presented to drivers. However, following this change, bias may still manifest through driver cancelation after a request is accepted, at which point the rider’s picture is displayed. Our primary research question is to what extent a rider’s gender, race, and perception of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights impact cancelation rates. We investigate this through a large field experiment on a major ridesharing platform in Washington, DC. By manipulating rider names and profile pictures, we observe drivers’ behavior patterns in accepting and canceling rides. Our results confirm that bias at the ride request stage has been eliminated. However, after acceptance, racial and LGBT biases are persistent, while we find no evidence of gender biases. We also explore whether peak times moderate (through increased pay to drivers) or exacerbate (by signaling that there are many riders, allowing drivers to be more selective) these biases. We find a moderating effect of peak timing, with lower cancelation rates for non-Caucasian riders. We do not find a similar moderating effect for riders that signal support for the LGBT community.
The Development of Intersectional Social Prototypes
Ryan Lei, Rachel Leshin & Marjorie Rhodes
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Race and gender information overlap to shape adults’ representations of social categories. This overlap can lead to the psychological “invisibility” of people whose race and gender identities are perceived to have conflicting stereotypes. In the present research (N = 249), we examined when race begins to bias representations of gender across development. In Study 1, a speeded categorization task revealed that children were slower to categorize Black women as women, relative to their speed of categorizing White and Asian women as women and Black men as men. Children were also more likely to miscategorize Black women as men and less likely to stereotype Black women as feminine. Study 2 replicated these findings and provided evidence of a developmental shift in categorization speed. An omnibus analysis provided a high-powered test of this developmental hypothesis, revealing that target race begins biasing children’s gender categorization around age 5 years. Implications for the development of social-category representation are discussed.
Implicit androcentrism: Men are human, women are gendered
April Bailey, Marianne LaFrance & John Dovidio
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
People think of certain social roles (e.g., scientists) as being men, but perhaps even more fundamentally, people also tend to think of a person as a man. People list men more often than women as examples of humanity and describe men with generic labels (e.g., the person) but use gender-specific labels (e.g., the woman) for women. This is especially true of male respondents. Much of the research on this androcentric tendency to conflate men with people has measured more controllable behaviors. The present studies instead investigated androcentrism using adaptations of the implicit association test (IAT). The IAT more closely captures theoretically relevant categorization cognitive processes; responses on the IAT are more difficult to control and thus suitable for socially-sensitive topics like gender bias; and the IAT can help to explain gender differences in androcentrism. Results from three studies showed that participants associated broad human concepts (e.g., person) with men more than women (Studies 1–3), and gender-specific concepts (e.g., woman) with women more than men (Studies 2–3). These IAT associations were larger for male (vs. female) participants (Studies 1–3) and for participants exposed to a male-emphasizing (vs. gender-inclusive) term for humanity (i.e., mankind; Study 3). Participants were also more likely to notice a semantic redundancy between being male and being human compared to the same redundancy concerning women (Studies 2–3). Together, these findings support a categorization-based theoretical account of androcentrism, advancing understanding of the nature of androcentrism and gender differences therein.
The Breadth of Confrontations as a Prejudice Reduction Strategy
Kimberly Chaney et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Past research on prejudice confrontations as a prejudice reduction tool has only examined bias that was implicated in the confrontation, such as the use of negative Black stereotypes after being confronted for using negative Black stereotypes. Examining the breadth of prejudice confrontations, we hypothesize that confronted individuals should subsequently use fewer negative and positive stereotypes about other racial minority groups, and fewer stereotypes about groups stigmatized along other identity dimensions (e.g., gender). In two studies, White participants confronted for the use of negative Black stereotypes used fewer negative Latino stereotypes (Study 1), positive Black, but not Asian, stereotypes and fewer gender role stereotypes (Study 2). Additionally, participants confronted for female gender role stereotypes subsequently used fewer negative Black and Latino stereotypes 24–72 hr later due to greater racial egalitarian motivation (Study 3). Thus, prejudice confrontations have a broad effect on reducing bias toward multiple stigmatized groups across identity dimensions.
Ally Confrontations as Identity‐Safety Cues for Marginalized Individuals
Laura Hildebrand, Celine Jusuf & Margo Monteith
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three studies and an integrative data analysis (N = 1,017) demonstrated that confrontations (speaking up against a stereotypical or prejudiced statement), when affirmed by bystanders, serve as an effective safety cue for targets of bias. In Studies 1 and 2, Chinese‐American and White women witnessed anti‐Asian and sexist remarks, respectively. Results revealed that a lone confronter (i.e., a confronter not affirmed by others) was unable to boost identity‐safety (e.g., belonging, safety) compared to when the bias was not confronted, regardless of confronter identity (i.e., ally versus ingroup confronter). Study 2 demonstrated that other people in the interaction group (i.e., bystanders) must affirm the confrontation for it to serve as an effective safety cue. Study 3 replicated and extended these results among White women for confrontation of sexism and Black women for confrontation of racism. Overall, these studies suggest that confrontations, when affirmed, can serve as a safety cue.
Can We Reduce Deception in Elite Field Experiments? Evidence from a Field Experiment with State Legislative Offices
Michelangelo Landgrave
State Politics & Policy Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
The use of deception is common in elite correspondence audit studies. Elite audit studies are a type of field experiment used by researchers to test for discrimination against vulnerable populations seeking to access government resources. These studies have provided invaluable insights, but they have done so at the cost of using deception. They have relied on identity, activity, and motivation deception. In addition, they request unnecessary work. Is there a less deceptive alternative? In this article, I present results from a field experiment with state legislative offices that minimize the use of deception. Consistent with elite correspondence audit studies, I find evidence of discrimination against Hispanics among state legislative offices. In addition, I find that discrimination is mitigated when subjects believe their behavior will be public knowledge. This suggests that discrimination can be mitigated through increased monitoring. This article advances the discussion on how to minimize the use of deception in elite field experimentation and how to mitigate discrimination against vulnerable populations.
As diversity increases, people paradoxically perceive social groups as more similar
Xuechunzi Bai, Miguel Ramos & Susan Fiske
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 9 June 2020, Pages 12741-12749
Abstract:
With globalization and immigration, societal contexts differ in sheer variety of resident social groups. Social diversity challenges individuals to think in new ways about new kinds of people and where their groups all stand, relative to each other. However, psychological science does not yet specify how human minds represent social diversity, in homogeneous or heterogenous contexts. Mental maps of the array of society’s groups should differ when individuals inhabit more and less diverse ecologies. Nonetheless, predictions disagree on how they should differ. Confirmation bias suggests more diversity means more stereotype dispersion: With increased exposure, perceivers’ mental maps might differentiate more among groups, so their stereotypes would spread out (disperse). In contrast, individuation suggests more diversity means less stereotype dispersion, as perceivers experience within-group variety and between-group overlap. Worldwide, nationwide, individual, and longitudinal datasets (n = 12,011) revealed a diversity paradox: More diversity consistently meant less stereotype dispersion. Both contextual and perceived ethnic diversity correlate with decreased stereotype dispersion. Countries and US states with higher levels of ethnic diversity (e.g., South Africa and Hawaii, versus South Korea and Vermont), online individuals who perceive more ethnic diversity, and students who moved to more ethnically diverse colleges mentally represent ethnic groups as more similar to each other, on warmth and competence stereotypes. Homogeneity shows more-differentiated stereotypes; ironically, those with the least exposure have the most-distinct stereotypes. Diversity means less-differentiated stereotypes, as in the melting pot metaphor. Diversity and reduced dispersion also correlate positively with subjective wellbeing.
Gaming roles versus gender roles in online gameplay
Kelsey Chappetta & Joan Barth
Information, Communication & Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
The research presented here examines gender roles and differential experiences of men and women associated with gaming, a multi-billion-dollar industry (Entertainment Software Association, 2016). Using social role theory (Eagly, 1987) and role congruity theory (Diekman & Eagly, 2008) as theoretical frameworks, it is proposed that attitudes and beliefs related to traditional gender roles account for differences in the way that games are played and experienced by women compared to men. World of Warcraft (WoW), one of the most popular, best-selling computer games (Entertainment Software Association, 2016), was chosen to investigate gender roles in gaming. Using controlled observations of actual WoW gameplay, the current study (N = 229 observations) examined the amount of negative feedback player characters received from other online players based on the character’s gender and role type. Findings indicated that female characters playing in masculine roles did not receive more negative feedback than comparable male characters in masculine roles, counter to role congruity theory. However, female characters in feminine roles received significantly less negative feedback than female characters in masculine roles. Together, these results suggest that stereotypical gender roles have an impact on gameplay and future research needs to examine the explanatory factors behind this.