Identity Verification
Economic scarcity increases racial stereotyping in beliefs and face representation
Michael Berkebile-Weinberg, Amy Krosch & David Amodio
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Racial discrimination typically expands under resource scarcity, but the psychological mechanisms driving this effect remain poorly understood. We examined the role of stereotypes in this effect, given their theorized function in asserting and maintaining existing group hierarchies, and hypothesized that stereotype expression would be heightened in response to scarcity, a signal of social instability. In Study 1, the manipulated perception of scarcity strengthened reported knowledge of stereotypes of Black Americans as low in socioeconomic status and as threatening, relative to control participants. In Study 2, perceived scarcity increased the stereotypicality of participants' visualizations of a Black male face, as assessed using a reverse correlation procedure and judged by independent raters. Study 3 replicated the effect of scarcity on stereotypic face visualizations and further demonstrated that scarcity increased anti-Black stereotypes even among individuals with relatively weak implicit stereotype associations. Together, these studies reveal that the mere perception of scarcity can increase stereotyping of Black Americans, as expressed in self-reports and implicit visualizations of Black faces. We discuss the potential role of stereotyping under scarcity as a means to justify racial discrimination and maintain power structures in response to systemic threat.
White patients’ physical responses to healthcare treatments are influenced by provider race and gender
Lauren Howe et al.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 5 July 2022
Abstract:
The healthcare workforce in the United States is becoming increasingly diverse, gradually shifting society away from the historical overrepresentation of White men among physicians. However, given the long-standing underrepresentation of people of color and women in the medical field, patients may still associate the concept of doctors with White men and may be physiologically less responsive to treatment administered by providers from other backgrounds. To investigate this, we varied the race and gender of the provider from which White patients received identical treatment for allergic reactions and measured patients’ improvement in response to this treatment, thus isolating how a provider’s demographic characteristics shape physical responses to healthcare. A total of 187 White patients experiencing a laboratory-induced allergic reaction interacted with a healthcare provider who applied a treatment cream and told them it would relieve their allergic reaction. Unbeknownst to the patients, the cream was inert (an unscented lotion) and interactions were completely standardized except for the provider’s race and gender. Patients were randomly assigned to interact with a provider who was a man or a woman and Asian, Black, or White. A fully blinded research assistant measured the change in the size of patients’ allergic reaction after cream administration. Results indicated that White patients showed a weaker response to the standardized treatment over time when it was administered by women or Black providers. We explore several potential explanations for these varied physiological treatment responses and discuss the implications of problematic race and gender dynamics that can endure “under the skin,” even for those who aim to be bias free.
Changes in Racial Apathy Among White Young Adults: A Five-Year National Panel Study
Tony Brown et al.
Sociological Inquiry, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigates changes in racial apathy among white young adults using nationally representative panel survey data from the NSYR. Our regression models include social background, social values, and academic orientation variables specified as important correlates of racial apathy in prior cross-sectional studies. We also include interracial contact variables, which existing studies neglect. According to intergroup contact theory, interracial contact should predict decreases in racial apathy. We find variables specified as important correlates in prior cross-sectional studies do not explain changes in racial apathy across time. Surprisingly, interracial friendship associates negatively with increases and decreases in racial apathy. Further, interracial dating predicts increases in racial apathy across time. These findings suggest racial apathy may be dissimilar to other forms of white racial prejudice and interracial contact may be an ineffective method to reduce contemporary forms of white racial prejudice.
A Novel Human Sex Difference: Male Sclera Are Redder and Yellower than Female Sclera
Sarah Kramer & Richard Russell
Archives of Sexual Behavior, forthcoming
Abstract:
In a seminal study, Kobayashi and Kohshima (1997) found that the human sclera — the white of the eye — is unique among primates for its whitish color, and subsequent work has supported the notion that this coloration underlies the human ability to gaze follow. Kobayashi and Kohshima also claimed that there is no significant sex difference in sclera color, though no data were presented to support the claim. We investigated sclera color in a standardized sample of faces varying in age and sex, presenting the first data comparing male and female sclera color. Our data support the claim that indeed there is a sex difference in sclera color, with male sclera being yellower and redder than female sclera. We also replicated earlier findings that female sclera vary in color across the adult lifespan, with older sclera appearing yellower, redder, and slightly darker than younger sclera, and we extended these findings to male sclera. Finally, in two experiments we found evidence that people use sclera color as a cue for making judgements of facial femininity or masculinity. When sclera were manipulated to appear redder and yellower, faces were perceived as more masculine, but were perceived as more feminine when sclera were manipulated to appear less red and yellow. Though people are typically unaware of the sex difference in sclera color, these findings suggest that people nevertheless use the difference as a visual cue when perceiving sex-related traits from the face.
Antisemitic Attitudes Across the Ideological Spectrum
Eitan Hersh & Laura Royden
Political Research Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
Concern about antisemitism in the U.S. has grown following recent rises in deadly assaults, vandalism, and harassment. Public accounts of antisemitism have focused on both the ideological right and left, suggesting a “horseshoe theory” in which the far left and the far right hold a common set of anti-Jewish prejudicial attitudes that distinguish them from the ideological center. However, there is little quantitative research evaluating left-wing versus right-wing antisemitism. We conduct several experiments on an original survey of 3500 U.S. adults, including an oversample of young adults. We oversampled young adults because unlike other forms of prejudice that are more common among older people, antisemitism is theorized to be more common among younger people. Contrary to the expectation of horseshoe theory, the data show the epicenter of antisemitic attitudes is young adults on the far right.
Equating silence with violence: When White Americans feel threatened by anti-racist messages
Frank Kachanoff, Nour Kteily & Kurt Gray
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Anti-racist messages educate people about structural racism and argue that indifference and inaction are the foundational building-blocks of race-based inequities. But these messages generate backlash, with several American states banning education about structural racism. We hypothesized that White Americans experience White identity threat and resist anti-racist messages most when they interpret these messages to equalize a lack of anti-racist action (i.e., indifference and silence), treating it as though it were the same as blatant racism. In contrast, we predicted that interpreting anti-racist messages to position silence as a foundational “building-block” for blatant racism would not evoke backlash. In Study 1 (N = 428) ~55% of White respondents in a representative American sample interpreted anti-racist messages as equating indifference with violence, and an equalizing interpretation predicted White identity threat and message resistance. In Study 2 (N = 492) we found that experimentally manipulating anti-racist messages to evoke high vs. low levels of equalizing interpretation led White Americans to feel more White identity threat and in turn be more resistant to both the anti-racist message and anti-racist action in general. In Study 3 (N = 1337) seeing anti-racist messages (vs. no-message) had little effect on White Americans in general, but evoked identity threat and denial of racism among White Americans high in equalizing interpretation who did not interpret the messages as conveying inaction to be a building-block for structural racism. In Study 4a and 4b (N = 789), we reveal a successful nudge for making anti-racist messages less threatening and more motivating for White Americans by using language less likely to evoke an equalizing interpretation.
The consequences of prototypicality: Testing the prejudice distribution account of bias toward gay men
Adam Beam & Joseph Wellman
Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The current study assessed how the extent to which a gay man resembled a prototypical gay man influenced the judgements others made about them. We hypothesized that highly prototypical gay men would be perceived to be more identified with the gay community, possess more negative stereotypes of gay men, engage in more activities within the gay community, viewed less positively by others, and receive more discrimination. Additionally, perceived group identification and negative stereotypes attributed to the gay man were expected to serially mediate the relationship between prototypicality and perceived engagement in gay activities, positive attitudes, and discrimination from others. Participants (N = 364) were randomly assigned to view stimuli depicting either a low or high prototypical gay man. High prototypical gay men were perceived to be more identified with the gay community, possess more negative stereotypes, and engage in more stereotypical immoral activities, than low prototypical gay men. Moreover, perceived group identification and negative stereotype attribution serially mediated the relationship between prototypicality and perceived engagement in gay activities, attitudes toward target, and discrimination. Implications for the Prejudice Distribution Account are discussed.
Propagation of societal gender inequality by internet search algorithms
Madalina Vlasceanu & David Amodio
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 19 July 2022
Abstract:
Humans increasingly rely on artificial intelligence (AI) for efficient and objective decision-making, yet there is increasing concern that algorithms used by modern AI systems produce discriminatory outputs, presumably because they are trained on data in which societal biases are embedded. As a consequence, their use by human decision makers may result in the propagation, rather than reduction, of existing disparities. To assess this hypothesis empirically, we tested the relation between societal gender inequality and algorithmic search output and then examined the effect of this output on human decision-making. First, in two multinational samples (n = 37, 52 countries), we found that greater nation-level gender inequality was associated with more male-dominated Google image search results for the gender-neutral keyword “person” (in a nation’s dominant language), revealing a link between societal-level disparities and algorithmic output. Next, in a series of experiments with human participants (n = 395), we demonstrated that the gender disparity associated with high- vs. low-inequality algorithmic outputs guided the formation of gender-biased prototypes and influenced hiring decisions in novel scenarios. These findings support the hypothesis that societal-level gender inequality is recapitulated in internet search algorithms, which in turn can influence human decision makers to act in ways that reinforce these disparities.
The Relationship Between Racial Attitudes and Perceived Economic Threat Among Whites: A Three Study Analysis
Spencer Lindsay
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Multiple theoretical orientations propose a link between economic anxiety and racial attitudes. This article explores this link using three studies. The first study uses observational data from the 2016 CCES and ANES to determine whether or not anticipating a loss in income in the coming year is associated with negative racial affect. The second study uses observational data from the 2020 CCES to determine whether or not perceiving a greater risk of personal discrimination is associated with racial resentment. The last uses an original survey experiment from the 2020 CCES to gain insight into how priming intergroup competition shapes whites’ racial attitudes. These studies find an association between perceived economic threat and negative racial attitudes. However, the way respondents perceive economic threats seems to be largely shaped by partisan identification with Republicans perceiving greater levels of threat. They also suggest that material and symbolic threats may be mutually reinforcing. These findings support the claim that racial attitudes are deeply connected to economic anxieties and provide insight into how party identification shapes our psychology.
Insecurity and Self-Esteem: Elucidating the Psychological Foundations of Negative Attitudes toward Women
Jordan Mansell & Malu Gatto
Politics & Gender, forthcoming
Abstract:
Political scientists recognize discriminatory attitudes as key to understanding a range of political preferences. Sexism is associated with both explicitly and non-explicitly gendered attitudes. But why do certain individuals display discriminatory attitudes, while others do not? Drawing from psychology, we examine the potential power of an underexplored set of personality traits — secure versus fragile self-esteem — in explaining gendered attitudes and preferences. With an online sample of (N = 487) U.S.-based participants, we find that fragile self-esteem is an important trait underlying individuals’ attitudes: individuals who display a discordant view of self — explicitly positive but implicitly negative — are more likely to hold hostile sexist attitudes and prefer men in leadership; these individuals are also more likely to support the Republican Party and former U.S. president Donald Trump. While present in only a fraction of the population, our results suggest that this trait may be important for understanding the development of discriminatory attitudes toward out-groups.
Perceiving People With Physical Disabilities as Overcoming Adversity Warps Mind Perception
Mattea Sim & Kurt Hugenberg
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Across six studies, we tested how people with physical disabilities were ascribed mental faculties. People with physical disabilities were seen as more capable of mental agency (e.g., thinking), but not more capable of experience (e.g., pain), compared to nondisabled people (Study 1). People with physical disabilities were also seen as more capable of supernatural mental agency (e.g., seeing the future, reading minds; Study 2). Believing that people with physical disabilities were more mentally agentic than nondisabled people was unrelated to Beliefs in a Just World (Study 3) but was related to beliefs about hardship (Study 4). Narratives of overcoming adversity, common in portrayals of the disabled community, increased the perceived mental sophistication of people with physical disabilities (Study 5). Finally, hardship narratives also affected helping behavior toward people with physical disabilities (Study 6). Thus, hardship stories surrounding individuals with disabilities may contribute to beliefs that they have particularly sophisticated minds.
Sex Differences in Competitiveness in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPGs)
Robert Deaner, Lucretia Dunlap & April Bleske Rechek
Evolutionary Psychology, June 2022
Abstract:
Sex differences in the use of competitive tactics have been well established. Although many factors may contribute to these sex differences, according to social role theory (SRT), stereotypes and expectations about men's and women's typical social roles are crucial. We addressed the potential impact of social roles by studying massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs), a setting where individuals represent themselves with avatars and thus enjoy the opportunity to compete without regard to the typical expectations and behaviors associated with men's and women's roles. We surveyed players via MTurk (63 women, 191 men) and Reddit (166 women, 1,326 men) regarding their frequency of engaging in five competitive behaviors and the sex and role of their primary avatar. As expected, there were reliable sex differences in competitiveness: men were more likely than women to engage in player-versus-player duels (MTurk d = 0.19; Reddit d = 0.51), do solo runs of difficult content (0.30, 0.35), and work to acquire expensive items (0.32, 0.19); women were more likely than men to seek in-game awards (−0.38, −0.36) and spend real-world money on expensive microtransactions (−0.16, −0.27). Contrary to SRT, these sex differences in forms of competitive behavior were generally unrelated to players’ chosen avatar sex or avatar role. These results instead indicate that sex differences in competitiveness largely reflect evolved predispositions.