Identifiable
Gendered racial boundary maintenance: Social penalties for White women in interracial relationships
Amelia Stillwell & Brian Lowery
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Throughout American history, formal laws and social norms have discouraged interracial romantic relationships. Interracial relationships blur the boundaries between racial groups, challenging the essentialized racial categories that define Whiteness as an exclusive, high status identity. Whites, who are the most resistant to interracial marriage of any racial group, have used their dominant position in American society to enforce norms against interracial relationships. Despite the importance of racial homogamy to White identity and status, we argue that gender roles make violating norms against intimate intergroup contact more costly for women than men, leading to Whites’ greater resistance to interracial relationships involving White women. In a representative American sample using a natural quasi-experiment, as well as 3 follow-up lab experiments, we find that White women face differential social penalties for intimate intergroup contact — being perceived as gender deviant and low status within the group. By contrast, having a racial out-group partner did not influence status perceptions of men or Black women. Status perceptions of both individuals in the couple predicted attitudes toward the couple as a unit, leading to greater prejudice toward interracial relationships involving White women than White men. This research demonstrates the existence of a gendered double standard for intimate intergroup contact among Whites, revealing that gender norms play a critical role in the maintenance of American racial boundaries.
After “The China Virus” Went Viral: Racially Charged Coronavirus Coverage and Trends in Bias Against Asian Americans
Sean Darling-Hammond et al.
Health Education & Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
On March 8, 2020, there was a 650% increase in Twitter retweets using the term “Chinese virus” and related terms. On March 9, there was an 800% increase in the use of these terms in conservative news media articles. Using data from non-Asian respondents of the Project Implicit “Asian Implicit Association Test” from 2007–2020 (n = 339,063), we sought to ascertain if this change in media tone increased bias against Asian Americans. Local polynomial regression and interrupted time-series analyses revealed that Implicit Americanness Bias — or the subconscious belief that European American individuals are more “American” than Asian American individuals — declined steadily from 2007 through early 2020 but reversed trend and began to increase on March 8, following the increase in stigmatizing language in conservative media outlets. The trend reversal in bias was more pronounced among conservative individuals. This research provides evidence that the use of stigmatizing language increased subconscious beliefs that Asian Americans are “perpetual foreigners.” Given research that perpetual foreigner bias can beget discriminatory behavior and that experiencing discrimination is associated with adverse mental and physical health outcomes, this research sounds an alarm about the effects of stigmatizing media on the health and welfare of Asian Americans.
Group evaluations as self‐group distancing: Ingroup typicality moderates evaluative intergroup bias in stigmatized groups
Iniobong Essien, Sabine Otten & Juliane Degner
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Outgroup favoritism among members of stigmatized groups can be seen as a form of self‐group distancing. We examined how intergroup evaluations in stigmatized groups vary as a function of ingroup typicality. In Studies 1 and 2, Black participants (N = 125,915; N = 766) more strongly preferred light‐skinned or White relative to dark‐skinned or Black individuals the lighter their own skin tone. In Study 3, overweight participants (N = 147,540) more strongly preferred normal‐weight relative to overweight individuals the lower their own body weight. In Study 4, participants with disabilities (N = 35,058) more strongly preferred non‐disabled relative to disabled individuals the less visible they judged their own disability. Relationships between ingroup typicality and intergroup evaluations were at least partially mediated by ingroup identification (Studies 2 and 3). A meta‐analysis across studies yielded an average effect size of r = .12. Furthermore, higher ingroup typicality was related to both ingroup and outgroup evaluations. We discuss ingroup typicality as an individual constraint to self‐group distancing among stigmatized group members and its relation to intergroup evaluations.
Knowledge of wealth shapes social impressions
Amar Sarkar et al.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, forthcoming
Abstract:
Seven experiments conducted in India and the United States (N ∼7,000; 5 preregistered) examined the effects of wealth on warmth and competence, 2 fundamental dimensions of social impressions. Wealth causally influenced perceptions of a target’s competence: high wealth increased perceived competence and low wealth decreased perceived competence (Experiments 1–3). Furthermore, both high and low wealth reduced perceived warmth compared with control conditions that provided no wealth-related information (Experiments 2 and 3). Attributing prosocial tendencies to the target in the form of charitable donations reversed wealth-induced reductions in warmth, while low levels of charitable donations lowered both perceived warmth and competence (Experiment 3). Reciprocally, information about the target’s competence or warmth influenced how wealthy they were perceived to be (Experiment 4). Knowing the source of wealth (e.g., entrepreneurship, corporate fraud, inheritance) also affected perceptions of competence and warmth (Experiments 5 and 6). Moreover, participants expressed greater willingness to hire wealthier targets compared with poorer targets in hypothetical employment scenarios, a relationship mediated by perceived competence, suggesting that an individual’s wealth may influence consequential assessments and decisions (Experiment 7). With rising economic inequality, it is crucial to understand how wealthy and poor individuals are perceived and the implications of these perceptions. The present experiments offer insight in this direction.
Smile pretty and watch your back: Personal safety anxiety and vigilance in objectification theory
Rachel Calogero et al.
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Objectification Theory posits that everyday encounters with sexual objectification carry a diffuse nonspecific sense of threat that engenders personal safety anxiety in women. In this article, we provide direct evidence for this tenet across 5 studies and 1,665 participants using multiple methods. Study 1 (N = 207) and Study 2 (N = 161) explored and confirmed the factor structure of the Personal Safety Anxiety and Vigilance Scale (PSAVS), a measure of personal safety anxiety, and provided evidence for the reliability and construct validity of its scores. Study 3 (N = 363) showed that personal safety anxiety is a conceptually different construct for women and men, and differentially mediated the relation between sexual objectification and restricted freedom of movement and the relation between self-objectification and restricted freedom of movement for women and men. Study 4 (N = 460) included a comprehensive test of personal safety anxiety within an expanded Objectification Theory model, which supported personal safety anxiety as a mediator of the links from sexual and self-objectification to women’s restricted freedom of movement. Study 5 (N = 474) replicated these results while also adjusting for specific fears of crime and rape. Our findings offer a newly validated assessment tool for future research on safety anxiety, illuminate the real and lasting sense of threat engendered by everyday sexual objectification, and broaden understanding of the mental and physical constraints on women’s lived experiences posited in Objectification Theory.
Denial of gender discrimination is associated with better subjective well‐being among women: A system justification account
Jaime Napier, Alexandra Suppes & Maria Laura Bettinsoli
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the fact that women face socially and politically sanctioned disadvantages every day, a large percentage of women and men report that gender discrimination is no longer a problem. Across three studies, which together include over 20,000 participants from 23 countries, we test the hypothesis that denial (vs. acknowledgement) of gender discrimination is associated with higher subjective well‐being among women (Studies 1–3), and this is because denying gender discrimination promotes the view that the system is fair (Study 1). We further show that this happens above and beyond personal experiences with sexism (Study 1) and that the association is stronger in countries where sexism is relatively high (vs. low; Study 3). We argue that denial of discrimination is an individual‐level coping mechanism and that, like other self‐group distancing strategies, it may perpetuate gender inequality.
Racial Resentment, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Kyle Peyton & Gregory Huber
Journal of Politics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Political scientists regularly measure anti-Black prejudice in the survey context using racial resentment, an indirect measure that blends racial animus with traditional moral values. Explicit prejudice, a direct measure based in beliefs about the group-level inferiority of Blacks, is used less frequently. We investigate whether these attitudes predict anti-Black discrimination and evaluations of the fairness of intergroup inequality. Study 1 used the Ultimatum Game (UG) to obtain a behavioral measure of racial discrimination and found whites engaged in anti-Black discrimination. Explicit prejudice explained which whites discriminated whereas resentment did not. In Study 2, white third-party observers evaluated intergroup interactions in the UG and explicit prejudice explained racially biased fairness evaluations, but resentment did not. This demonstrates that resentment and prejudice are distinct constructs, and that explicit prejudice has clear behavioral implications. We also find that explicit prejudice is widespread among white Americans and significantly less partisan than resentment.
Justice is (not so) blind: Effects of facial masculinity and agreeableness on perceptions of criminal guilt
Kathryn Ford, Ian Penton-Voak & Nicholas Pound
Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, forthcoming
Abstract:
People have a tendency to make rapid judgments about the personality of others based on their facial appearance, a tendency which could have adaptive value if it helps facilitate the avoidance of individuals disposed to exploit and/or harm the perceiver. These rapid judgments, accurate or not, have the potential to influence how individuals are treated in many areas of life, including within the criminal justice system. Previous research investigating effects of appearance on judicial proceedings has suggested that a masculine facial appearance might activate criminal stereotypes, and therefore increase the likelihood of being judged guilty of a crime. To examine how masculinity might interact with other appearance dimensions, we investigated how facial morphological masculinity and perceived agreeableness influence perceptions of criminal guilt. In an online study, 369 participants (167 men, 200 women, 2 did not say) aged 18 to 82, read 12 short fictional vignettes each describing a crime (assault, burglary, or rape) with each accompanied by the face of a man “charged” with the crime. Faces were manipulated using morphing techniques to increase or decrease levels of (a) morphological masculinity and (b) perceived agreeableness (i.e., 2 × 2 manipulations for each target face). Participants were asked to indicate in each case whether they thought the “accused” was guilty or not. Overall, facial appearance had a significant effect on the probability of being judged guilty. For each crime type, manipulations of perceived agreeableness had large effects on the probability of being judged guilty, whereas manipulations of morphological masculinity did not.
Racial Resentment or Sexism? White Americans’ Outgroup Attitudes as Predictors of Gun Ownership and NRA Membership
Alexandra Filindra, Noah Kaplan & Beyza Buyuker
Sociological Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
Gun ownership is a key predictor of gun policy preferences, political advocacy on behalf of gun rights, and political engagement. Theories have linked both racial and gender ideologies to gun ownership among white Americans, but the evidence is spotty. Statistical analyses provide some limited confirmation that racial resentment is a key predictor of gun ownership, but the role of sexism has not been tested quantitatively especially in conjunction with racial resentment. We use the 2004–2016 ANES and a 2015 Gun Survey to statistically test the relative importance of racial resentment and sexism in predicting gun ownership, rationales for owning firearms, and NRA membership among whites. We find strong evidence that racial resentment is associated with gun ownership, rationales for owning firearms, and NRA membership, but the results for sexism are generally not consistent with expectations.
The perceived threat of demographic shifts depends on how you think the economy works
Krystal Perkins, Alexia Toskos Dils & Stephen Flusberg
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research shows that people exhibit a conservative shift in their politics when their majority group status is threatened. We reasoned that perceptions of threat posed by shifting demographics might depend on individuals’ folk economic beliefs. Across three experiments, White Americans read about projected demographic changes (“threat”) or changes in online dating (“control”) before expressing support for political policies. They also indicated whether they viewed the U.S. economy as a zero- or non-zero-sum system. Relative to controls, participants in the threat condition expressed more support for conservative policies, but only if they conceptualized the economy in zero-sum terms; those who conceptualized the economy in non-zero-sum terms actually endorsed slightly more liberal positions under “threat.” However, these effects obtained only when participants expressed their economic views before their political attitudes. This suggests folk economic beliefs shape how people respond to threats to their majority status, provided those beliefs are first made explicit.
Male voice pitch mediates the relationship between objective and perceived formidability
Toe Aung, Kevin Rosenfield & David Puts
Evolution and Human Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
Acoustic signals function in intrasexual mating competition in a wide variety of species, including humans. The low voice pitch of human males has been proposed to represent an honest signal of formidability. Although voice pitch in men affects perceptions of size and dominance, it is relatively weakly associated with objective measures of formidability such as body size and strength. As a result, some authors have argued that low male voice pitch is not a valid signal of formidability but is deceptive and salient only because it hijacks a tendency to perceive lower frequency sounds as emanating from larger sources. In this paper, we consider theoretical and empirical issues associated with this perceptual exploitation hypothesis and ask whether male voice pitch transmits information about formidability. We utilize mediation models to investigate whether male voice pitch is an honest signal of formidability in two data sets. In both data sets, male voice pitch mediated the relationship between objective (measured by height) and perceived formidability. Collectively, these results indicate that men’s voice pitch transmits information about formidability from signaler to receiver.