Identity politics
Valuing Differences and Reinforcing Them: Multiculturalism Increases Race Essentialism
Leigh Wilton, Evan Apfelbaum & Jessica Good
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
A substantial body of research on diversity philosophies has shown that multiculturalism (i.e., emphasizing and valuing cultural/ethnic differences) is a more effective way to promote equality and reduce bias than color blindness (i.e., deemphasizing cultural/ethnic differences in lieu of similarities). However, across two experiments, we present evidence for an unexpectedly negative outcome of multiculturalism: increased belief in race essentialism, or the notion that racial group differences are valid, biologically based, and immutable. Study 1 (N = 165) shows that participants exposed to multiculturalism expressed greater race essentialist beliefs compared to those exposed to color blindness. Study 2 (N = 150) replicates this effect and also finds that exposure to multiculturalism, compared to color blindness, decreased participants’ belief that racial equality is a problem. These findings raise the ironic possibility that well-intentioned efforts to portray the value of differences may reinforce the belief that fixed, biological characteristics underpin them.
“Girls Are as Good as Boys at Math” Implies That Boys Are Probably Better: A Study of Expressions of Gender Equality
Eleanor Chestnut & Ellen Markman
Cognitive Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although “Girls are as good as boys at math” explicitly expresses equality, we predict it could nevertheless suggest that boys have more raw talent. In statements with this subject‐complement structure, the item in the complement position serves as the reference point and is thus considered more typical and prominent. This explains why “Tents are like houses,” for instance, sounds better than “Houses are like tents” — people generally think of houses as more typical. For domains about ability, the reference point should be the item that is typically more skilled. We further propose that the reference point should be naturally more skilled. In two experiments, we presented adults with summaries of actual scientific evidence for gender equality in math (Experiment 1) or verbal ability (Experiment 2), but we manipulated whether the reference point in the statements of equality in the summaries (e.g., “Boys’ verbal ability is as good as girls’”) was girls or boys. As predicted, adults attributed more natural ability to each gender when it was in the complement rather than subject position. Yet, in Experiment 3, we found that when explicitly asked, participants judged that such sentences were not biased in favor of either gender, indicating that subject‐complement statements must be transmitting this bias in a subtle way. Thus, statements such as “Girls are as good as boys at math” can actually backfire and perpetuate gender stereotypes about natural ability.
Does Shared Social Disadvantage Cause Black–Latino Political Commonality?
Mackenzie Israel-Trummel & Ariela Schachter
Journal of Experimental Political Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Shared social disadvantage relative to Whites is assumed to motivate inter-minority political behavior but we lack causal evidence. Using a survey experiment of 1,200 African Americans, we prompt respondents to consider group social position when evaluating political commonality with Latinos. The experiment describes racial disparities in a randomized domain (education or housing), varies the description of inequality (either Black versus White, Latino versus White, or Black and Latino versus White), and offers half of the respondents a political cue to test whether shared social disadvantage causes Blacks’ perceptions of political commonality with Latinos. We find little evidence of a causal relationship. We conclude that cross-racial minority political coalitions may be more difficult to activate than previously thought.
Changing minds via collective action: Exposure to the 2017 Women’s March predicts decrease in (some) men’s gender system justification over time
Tamar Saguy & Hanna Szekeres
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, August 2018, Pages 678-689
Abstract:
Even though social change efforts are largely aimed at impacting upon public opinion, there is an overwhelming scarcity of research on the potential consequences of collective action. We aimed to fill this gap by capitalizing on the widespread 2017 Women’s March that developed across the US and worldwide in response to Donald Trump’s inauguration. We assessed changes in gender system justification of men and women over time — before and right after the Women’s March (N = 344). We further considered participants’ level of gender identification and reported levels of exposure to the march as predictors of change. Results showed that gender system justification decreased over time, but only among low-identified men with relatively high exposure to the protests. For men highly identified with their gender, gender system justification actually increased with greater exposure to the protests. For women, we did not observe changes in gender system justification. Implications for collective action and for gender relations are discussed.
A Robust Bias Against Interracial Couples Among White and Black Respondents, Relative to Multiracial Respondents
Allison Skinner & James Rae
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Interracial couples are an understudied but increasingly common social group in the United States. We used direct and indirect measures to examine explicit and implicit biases (respectively) against interracial couples among samples of (a) predominantly White (non-Black; N = 1,217), (b) Black (N = 293), and (c) multiracial (N = 284) respondents recruited from the United States. Results provide evidence of implicit and explicit bias against Black–White interracial couples among respondents in the predominantly White sample and the Black sample. There was no evidence of such biases among self-identified multiracial respondents; in fact, they self-reported favoritism for interracial couples. Consistent with psychological theory and our preregistered hypotheses, we found that personal experience with interracial romance and self-reported contact with interracial couples tended to predict lower levels of bias against interracial couples. This research exposes a robust bias against a growing social group (interracial couples) among predominantly White respondents and Black respondents relative to respondents who identify as multiracial.
Not Only Whites: Racial Priming Effect for Black Faces in Black People
Luca Guido Valla et al.
Basic and Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Black people are widely negatively stereotyped. The presence of unconscious stereotypes can be effectively assessed with the administration of “racial priming tasks.” An ethnically diverse group was subjected to a priming paradigm to test whether racial cues could bias the identification of target objects. Participants were asked to categorize objects (either as dangerous or nondangerous) after the presentation of Black/White faces as primes. Results show that both Black and White participants were faster in categorizing dangerous objects when primed with Black faces compared to the control condition (i.e., scrambled faces). One possible explanation for this effect is that Black faces are generally associated with a feeling of danger, which ultimately leads to faster responses.
“Putting gender on the table”: Understanding reactions to women who discuss gender inequality
Moran Anisman-Razin, Ronit Kark & Tamar Saguy
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, August 2018, Pages 690-706
Abstract:
Even though gender inequality remains an important challenge across societies, many believe it to be long gone (Marken, 2016). Thus, it is essential to publicly address issues related to gender inequality as a first step towards advancing change in this domain. However, those who address gender inequality may encounter personal costs. In the current research, we examined reactions to women who “put gender on the table.” In Study 1 (N = 202), men who were exposed to a woman who raised the issue of gender inequality (vs. age inequality or a neutral topic), had more negative attitudes towards both her and gender equality. In Study 2, (N = 233), women high on feminist identification were more positive toward a woman who discussed gender inequality (vs. other topics), whereas women low on feminist identification were more negative toward both her and the issue.
Verbal Aggression, Race, and Sex on Reality TV: Is This Really the Way It Is?
Jack Glascock & Catherine Preston-Schreck
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Summer 2018, Pages 427-444
Abstract:
This content analysis examines verbal aggression, race, and gender presented in a composite week of popular reality TV programming on cable and broadcast television. Results show that African Americans were found to be overrepresented and depicted disproportionately as more verbally aggressive and more likely to be victims of verbal aggression than other races/ethnicities. African American women were more likely than men to be involved in verbal aggression, both as aggressor and victim. The results are discussed in terms of the potential effects of exposure to verbal aggression and the accompanying contextual factors found in reality TV programming.
Teleface: Serial reproduction of faces reveals a whiteward bias in race memory
Stefan Uddenberg & Brian Scholl
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
How is race encoded into memory when viewing faces? Here we demonstrate a novel systematic bias in which our memories of faces converge on certain prioritized regions in our underlying “face space,” as they relate to perceived race. This convergence was made especially salient using a new visual variant of the method of serial reproduction: “TeleFace.” A single face was briefly presented, with its race selected from a smooth continuum between White and Black (matched for mean luminance). The observer then reproduced that face, using a slider to morph a test face along this continuum. Their response was then used as the face initially presented to the next observer, and so on down the line in each reproduction chain. White observers’ chains consistently and steadily converged onto faces significantly Whiter than they had initially encountered — Whiter than both the original face in the chain and the continuum’s midpoint — regardless of where chains began. Indeed, even chains beginning near the Black end of the continuum inevitably ended up well into White space. Very different patterns resulted when the same method was applied to other arbitrary face stimuli. These results highlight a systematic bias in memory for race in White observers, perhaps contributing to the more general notion in social cognition research of a ‘White default.’
When a face type is perceived as threatening: Using general recognition theory to understand biased categorization of Afrocentric faces
Heather Kleider-Offutt et al.
Memory & Cognition, July 2018, Pages 716–728
Abstract:
Prior research indicates that stereotypical Black faces (e.g., wide nose, full lips: Afrocentric) are often associated with crime and violence. The current study investigated whether stereotypical faces may bias the interpretation of facial expression to seem threatening. Stimuli were prerated by face type (stereotypical, nonstereotypical) and expression (neutral, threatening). Later in a forced-choice task, different participants categorized face stimuli as stereotypical or not and threatening or not. Regardless of prerated expression, stereotypical faces were judged as more threatening than were nonstereotypical faces. These findings were supported using computational models based on general recognition theory (GRT), indicating that decision boundaries were more biased toward the threatening response for stereotypical faces than for nonstereotypical faces. GRT analysis also indicated that perception of face stereotypicality and emotional expression are dependent, both across categories and within individual categories. Higher perceived stereotypicality predicts higher perception of threat, and, conversely, higher ratings of threat predict higher perception of stereotypicality. Implications for racial face-type bias influencing perception and decision-making in a variety of social and professional contexts are discussed.
Exploring Blacks’ Perceptions of Whites’ Racial Prejudice as a Function of Intergroup Behavior and Motivational Mindsets
Stefanie Simon et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
When Whites believe prejudice cannot change, they often adopt a behavioral style that is intended to reduce the possibility that they are seen as racist (i.e., performance-oriented behaviors). The present research tests the possibility that these performance-oriented behaviors may be interpreted, ironically, as racist. Across two studies, Black participants viewed performance-oriented behaviors as indicating racial prejudice. Additionally, when Black participants were led to believe that Whites’ racial prejudice could not change, they perceived Whites as more prejudiced. This research highlights a potential source of misunderstanding in interracial interactions and offers implications for improving interracial interactions from target and perpetrator perspectives.
“A threat on the ground”: The consequences of witnessing stereotype-confirming ingroup members in interracial interactions
Valerie Jones Taylor et al.
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, July 2018, Pages 319-333
Method: Study 1 used experience-sampling methodology to assess ethnic minority students’ (n = 119) intergroup anxiety, metastereotypes, and anticipatory behaviors following one of three types of interpersonal interactions: (a) a White person and a racial ingroup member who had behaved stereotypically, (b) a White person and a nonstereotypical ingroup member, or (c) neither. Studies 2 (n = 273) and 3 (n = 379) experimentally examined whether witnessing an ingroup member’s stereotypically negative behavior in interracial interactions, compared to stereotypically positive (Study 2) or nonstereotypically negative behavior (Study 3) differentially affected anxiety, metastereotypes, and anticipatory behaviors in interracial versus intraracial interactions among Black Americans.
Results: In Study 1, minorities reported greater anxiety, metastereotypes, and motivation to disprove stereotypes, but less interest in future interracial contact, following interracial interactions involving stereotype-confirming ingroup members compared to other interactions. In Studies 2 and 3, adverse interaction consequences were most severe when ingroup behavior was both negative and stereotypical compared to neutral, stereotypically positive, and nonstereotypically negative ingroup behavior. Additionally, metastereotypes (and, to a lesser degree, anxiety) mediated individuals’ motivation to disprove stereotypes and desire future interactions with White witnesses following stereotypically negative ingroup behavior in interracial (vs. intraracial) interactions.
Gender is not simply a matter of black and white, or is it?
Gün Semin et al.
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences, 5 August 2018
Abstract:
Based on research in physical anthropology, we argue that brightness marks the abstract category of gender, with light colours marking the female gender and dark colours marking the male gender. In a set of three experiments, we examine this hypothesis, first in a speeded gender classification experiment with male and female names presented in black and white. As expected, male names in black and female names in white are classified faster than the reverse gender-colour combinations. The second experiment relies on a gender classification task involving the disambiguation of very briefly appearing non-descript stimuli in the form of black and white ‘blobs’. The former are classified predominantly as male and the latter as female names. Finally, the processes driving light and dark object choices for males and females are examined by tracking the number of fixations and their duration in an eye-tracking experiment. The results reveal that when choosing for a male target, participants look longer and make more fixations on dark objects, and the same for light objects when choosing for a female target. The implications of these findings, which repeatedly reveal the same data patterns across experiments with Dutch, Portuguese and Turkish samples for the abstract category of gender, are discussed. The discussion attempts to enlarge the subject beyond mainstream models of embodied grounding.