Shades of gray
The Basis of Shooter Biases: Beyond Cultural Stereotypes
Saul Miller, Kate Zielaskowski & Ashby Plant
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
White police officers and undergraduate students mistakenly shoot unarmed Black suspects more than White suspects on computerized shoot/don't shoot tasks. This bias is typically attributed to cultural stereotypes of Black men. Yet, previous research has not examined whether such biases emerge even in the absence of cultural stereotypes. The current research investigates whether individual differences in chronic beliefs about interpersonal threat interact with target group membership to elicit shooter biases, even when group membership is unrelated to race or cultural stereotypes about danger. Across two studies, participants with strong beliefs about interpersonal threats were more likely to mistakenly shoot outgroup members than ingroup members; this was observed for unfamiliar, arbitrarily formed groups using a minimal group paradigm (Study 1) and racial groups not culturally stereotyped as dangerous (Asians; Study 2). Implications for the roles of both group membership and cultural stereotypes in shaping decisions to shoot are discussed.
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Priyanka Carr, Carol Dweck & Kristin Pauker
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Prejudiced behavior is typically seen as emanating from prejudiced attitudes. Eight studies showed that majority-group members' beliefs about prejudice can create seemingly "prejudiced" behaviors above and beyond prejudice measured explicitly (Study 1b) and implicitly (Study 2). Those who believed prejudice was relatively fixed, rather than malleable, were less interested in interracial interactions (Studies 1a-1d), race- or diversity-related activities (Study 1a), and activities to reduce their prejudice (Study 3). They were also more uncomfortable in interracial, but not same-race, interactions (Study 2). Study 4 manipulated beliefs about prejudice and found that a fixed belief, by heightening concerns about revealing prejudice to oneself and others, depressed interest in interracial interactions. Further, though Whites who were taught a fixed belief were more anxious and unfriendly in an interaction with a Black compared with a White individual, Whites who were taught a malleable belief were not (Study 5). Implications for reducing prejudice and improving intergroup relations are discussed.
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Rebecca Neel & Jenessa Shapiro
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, July 2012, Pages 101-120
Abstract:
How do Whites approach interracial interactions? We argue that a previously unexamined factor - beliefs about the malleability of racial bias - guides Whites' strategies for difficult interracial interactions. We predicted and found that those who believe racial bias is malleable favor learning-oriented strategies such as taking the other person's perspective and trying to learn why an interaction is challenging, whereas those who believe racial bias is fixed favor performance-oriented strategies such as overcompensating in the interaction and trying to end the interaction as quickly as possible. Four studies support these predictions. Whether measured (Studies 1, 3, and 4) or manipulated (Study 2), beliefs that racial bias is fixed versus malleable yielded these divergent strategies for difficult interracial interactions. Furthermore, beliefs about the malleability of racial bias are distinct from related constructs (e.g., prejudice and motivations to respond without prejudice; Studies 1, 3, and 4) and influence self-reported (Studies 1-3) and actual (Study 4) strategies in imagined (Studies 1-2) and real (Studies 3-4) interracial interactions. Together, these findings demonstrate that beliefs about the malleability of racial bias influence Whites' approaches to and strategies within interracial interactions.
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Daniel Budak & Pablo Chavajay
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, July 2012, Pages 307-311
Abstract:
This study examined the social organization of a problem-solving task among 15 African American and 15 European American sibling pairs. The 30 sibling pairs between the ages of 6 and 12 were video recorded constructing a marble track together during a home visit. African American siblings were observed to collaborate more often than European American siblings who were more likely to divide up the labor and direct each other in constructing the marble track. In addition, older European American siblings made more proposals of step plans than older African American siblings. The findings provide insights into the cultural basis of the social organization of problem solving across African American and European American siblings.
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Nao Hagiwara, Jennifer Wessel & Ann Marie Ryan
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Some studies have found that acknowledging one's stigmatized social identity in an evaluative context leads to more favorable evaluations, whereas others have found that stigma acknowledgment can increase negative evaluations. The present study examined one potential factor (i.e., evaluators' attitudes toward social groups to which acknowledgers belong) that may moderate the relation between stigma acknowledgment and evaluations, in the context of race and gender acknowledgment in the 2008 U.S. presidential election. Results indicated that acknowledgment of race, but not gender, led to more negative evaluations, particularly for high-prejudiced individuals. The findings highlight the importance of examining stigma acknowledgment effects from a Person × Situation perspective. Implications for advancing understanding of acknowledgment as a useful strategy in evaluative contexts are discussed.
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Skin and Bones: The Contribution of Skin Tone and Facial Structure to Racial Prototypicality Ratings
Michael Strom et al.
PLoS ONE, July 2012
Abstract:
Previous research reveals that a more ‘African' appearance has significant social consequences, yielding more negative first impressions and harsher criminal sentencing of Black or White individuals. This study is the first to systematically assess the relative contribution of skin tone and facial metrics to White, Black, and Korean perceivers' ratings of the racial prototypicality of faces from the same three groups. Our results revealed that the relative contribution of metrics and skin tone depended on both perceiver race and face race. White perceivers' racial prototypicality ratings were less responsive to variations in skin tone than were Black or Korean perceivers' ratings. White perceivers ratings' also were more responsive to facial metrics than to skin tone, while the reverse was true for Black perceivers. Additionally, across all perceiver groups, skin tone had a more consistent impact than metrics on racial prototypicality ratings of White faces, with the reverse for Korean faces. For Black faces, the relative impact varied with perceiver race: skin tone had a more consistent impact than metrics for Black and Korean perceivers, with the reverse for White perceivers. These results have significant implications for predicting who will experience racial prototypicality biases and from whom.
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Stigma Allure and White Antiracist Identity Management
Matthew Hughey
Social Psychology Quarterly, forthcoming
Abstract:
This article examines how "white antiracists" manage a perceived, and sometimes self-imposed, stigma. Given that whiteness and antiracism are often framed as antonyms, white engagement with matters commonly deemed "nonwhite issues" often involves a presentation of self that unsettles established habit and expected modes of interaction. Adding to the research on race and stigma, I demonstrate how privileged actors repeatedly construct a broken and stigmatized white and antiracist identity in which management of one recreates the stigmatization of the other. They not only accept a "spoiled" identity (whiteness-as-racist and antiracism-as-too-radical), but embrace stigma as markings of moral commitment and political authenticity. This dynamic - what I call stigma allure - illuminates how stigma, rather than a status to be shunned or entirely overcome, can become a desired component of identity formation that drives and orders human behavior toward utilitarian, symbolic, and self-creative goals.
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Virgil Zeigler-Hill, Marion Wallace & Erin Myers
Personality and Individual Differences, October 2012, Pages 785-789
Abstract:
Black individuals consistently report the highest levels of self-esteem of any racial group in the United States. The present study utilized the bogus pipeline procedure (i.e., the use of physiological equipment that ostensibly allows the researcher to detect if individuals are lying) to examine whether impression management plays a role in the relatively high levels of self-esteem that are reported by Black individuals. Participants were 95 undergraduates who volunteered to complete a measure of self-esteem before later responding to the same measure of self-esteem under either bogus pipeline or control conditions in the laboratory. Black participants with high levels of self-esteem were found to report more modest feelings of self-worth in the bogus pipeline condition than in the control condition. The results of the study suggest that impression management may be an important consideration when examining the feelings of self-worth reported by members of stigmatized groups.
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Ethnicity, Ethnic Identity, and Adolescent Narcissism
Jessica Pickard et al.
Self and Identity, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present study explored the influence of ethnicity and ethnic identity on adolescent narcissism, as well as the role of these variables in the link between narcissism and adolescent aggression. Participants were 348 at-risk adolescents (278 males, 70 females), ranging in age from 16 to 18 (M = 16.7 years; SD = 0.69 years) who were enrolled in a community-based residential program. Results revealed significant ethnic differences on narcissism, such that Black participants scored higher than White participants. Ethnic identity partially explained why ethnicity was associated with narcissism. Overall, the findings of this study speak to the importance of considering cultural context in narcissism, as well as other forms of self-perception. However, the limitations, particularly regarding the generalizability of these findings, are also discussed.
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Kumar Yogeeswaran, Nilanjana Dasgupta & Cristian Gomez
European Journal of Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Three experiments integrate research from political science and social psychology to examine the consequences of two competing visions of American national identity. American identity has been defined not only in terms of shared ethnocultural heritage originating in Europe (the ethnocultural prototype) but also in terms of shared commitment to civic service (the civic responsibility prototype). Three experiments tested the consequence of highlighting each of these national prototypes on perceivers' inclusion of ethnic minorities as legitimately American. Experiments 1-3 showed that highlighting ethnic minorities' allegiance to their ethnic subgroup (versus downplaying it) challenges the ethnocultural prototype and makes ethnic minorities appear less American. Process data showed that this effect was mediated by increased threats to American distinctiveness. By contrast, emphasizing ethnic minorities' national service (versus local community service) highlights ethnic minorities' fit with the civic responsibility prototype and makes ethnic minorities appear more American (Experiments 2-3). Process data showed that this effect was mediated by enhanced American distinctiveness. Collectively, these experiments highlight how inclusion of ethnic minorities in the nation can wax and wane depending on which definition of national character is salient in the social context.
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Young Min Baek & Angela Lee
Social Science Journal, June 2012, Pages 127-138
Abstract:
Most Racial Studies primarily focus on African Americans without paying attention to nonblack minorities, and it fails to capture recent increase in racial diversity. Based on previous theories and empirical findings, we propose a new model, minority comparison model, which accounts for theoretical shortcomings in Racial Studies. This model (1) captures psychological processes that compare blacks and nonblacks, and (2) explores the effects of whites' multiracial evaluation on racialized policy preferences. Drawing on a 2008 national representative sample, this study finds that whites who have positive stereotype of nonblacks (e.g., Hispanics and/or Asians) but negative stereotype of blacks show substantially higher symbolic racism and stronger opposition to Affirmative Action, whereas whites who have positive stereotype of blacks but negative stereotypes of nonblacks have stronger opposition to expansive immigration policy. Our study offers new ways of understanding and accounting for symbolic racism in modern context, and shows how whites' preferences in racialized policies are influenced by multiracial evaluation.
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Ming-Te Wang & James Huguley
Child Development, forthcoming
Abstract:
This study investigated whether parental racial socialization practices moderated the relation between racial discrimination in school and adolescents' educational outcomes. Using data from a longitudinal study of an economically diverse sample of 630 African American adolescents (mean age = 14.5) from a major East Coast metropolis, the results revealed that cultural socialization attenuated the effect of teacher discrimination on grade point average (GPA) and educational aspirations, as well as the effect of peer discrimination on GPA. Also, preparation for bias and cultural socialization interacted to make unique contributions to African American adolescents' educational outcomes. Finally, there was some evidence that teacher discrimination was more detrimental to the academic engagement of African American males than females. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
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Elevated baseline anxiety among African Americans in laboratory research settings
José Angel Soto et al.
Journal of Psychophysiology, Summer 2012, Pages 105-115
Abstract:
We tested the hypothesis that African Americans would show greater anxiety than their European American counterparts when entering laboratory research settings. We examined subjective and physiological anxiety measures obtained both inside and outside the research laboratory from 126 African Americans and 147 European Americans in three separate studies. Consistent with our hypotheses, African Americans reported experiencing significantly more baseline anxiety and showed greater baseline physiological arousal consistent with anxiety than European Americans. These differences were evident when controlling for anxiety observed outside of the research setting as well as baseline differences in overall emotional experience. Our findings highlight the need to consider laboratory-induced anxiety as a potential confound in studies involving African Americans. This may be especially important in race comparison studies in which undetected baseline anxiety could alter the interpretation of subsequent race comparisons.
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Limited English proficiency and psychological distress among Latinos and Asian Americans
Wei Zhang et al.
Social Science & Medicine, September 2012, Pages 1006-1014
Abstract:
English proficiency is increasingly recognized as an important factor that is related to the mental health of immigrants and ethnic minorities. However, few studies have examined how the association between English proficiency and mental health operates and whether the pattern of association is similar or different among various ethnic minority groups. This paper investigates how limited English proficiency directly and indirectly affects psychological distress through pathways of discrimination for both Latinos and Asian Americans in the United States. Findings suggest that, for Asian Americans, limited English proficiency has an independent relationship with psychological distress over and above demographic variables, socioeconomic and immigration-related factors and discrimination. For Latinos, however, socio-demographic variables and discrimination show a stronger association than limited English proficiency in affecting psychological distress. Different forms of discrimination - everyday discrimination and racial/ethnic discrimination - are equally important for both ethnic groups. Findings underscore the differential role of limited English proficiency for the mental health of Asian Americans and Latinos and suggest the distinctive racial experiences and backgrounds of these two ethnic groups.
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Long-term reduction in implicit race bias: A prejudice habit-breaking intervention
Patricia Devine et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We developed a multi-faceted prejudice habit-breaking intervention to produce long-term reductions in implicit race bias. The intervention is based on the premise that implicit bias is like a habit that can be reduced through a combination of awareness of implicit bias, concern about the effects of that bias, and the application of strategies to reduce bias. In a 12-week longitudinal study, people who received the intervention showed dramatic reductions in implicit race bias. People who were concerned about discrimination or who reported using the strategies showed the greatest reductions. The intervention also led to increases in concern about discrimination and personal awareness of bias over the duration of the study. People in the control group showed none of the above effects. Our results raise the hope of reducing persistent and unintentional forms of discrimination that arise from implicit bias.
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Ethnic Group Moderates the Association Between Attachment and Well-Being in Later Life
Eva-Maria Merz & Nathan Consedine
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Attachment styles are associated with well-being across the life span. Particularly in later life, when individuals face declining health and increasing dependency, patterns of attachment may relate to affective outcomes. However, few studies have empirically examined the attachment-well-being link at the end of the life span or considered whether ethnic group membership may moderate attachment-well-being links. Data from a sample of older adults (N = 1,116) were used to investigate how secure, dismissive, and fearful/avoidant styles predicted well-being in 4 ethnic groups; African Americans, European Americans, Eastern European immigrants, and English-speaking Caribbean immigrants. As expected, both secure and dismissive attachment dimensions were related to greater well-being, whereas fearful/avoidant attachment was associated with less. This positive impact of a secure attachment style of relating to others on well-being was stronger among African Americans and English-speaking Caribbeans compared with the European American and Eastern European immigrant groups. The negative impact of a fearful/avoidant attachment style of relating on well-being was buffered by being an English-speaking Caribbean but not for the other 3 groups. Results are interpreted in light of general and culture-specific premises of attachment. The article concludes with some implications and suggestions for future work.
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Darrell Hudson et al.
Journal of Men's Health, June 2012, Pages 127-136
Background: Conventional wisdom suggests that increased socioeconomic resources should be related to better health. Considering the body of evidence demonstrating the significant association between racial discrimination and depression, we examined whether exposure to racial discrimination could attenuate the positive effects of increased levels of socioeconomic position (SEP) among African Americans. Specifically, this paper investigated the joint interactive effects of SEP and racial discrimination on the odds of depression among African Americans.
Methods: Racial discrimination was measured using two measures, major and everyday discrimination. Study objectives were achieved using data from the National Survey of American Life, which included a nationally representative sample of African Americans (n=3570). Logistic regression models were used to estimate the effects of SEP and racial discrimination on the odds of depression.
Results: Reports of racial discrimination were associated with increased risk of depression among African American men who possessed greater levels of education and income. Among African American men, significant, positive interactions were observed between education and experiences of major discrimination, which were associated with greater odds of depression (P=0.02). Additionally, there were positive interactions between income and both measures of racial discrimination (income x everyday discrimination, P=0.013; income x major discrimination, P=0.02), which were associated with increased odds of depression (P=0.02).
Conclusions: It is possible that experiences of racial discrimination could, in part, diminish the effects of increased SEP among African American men.
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Social Dominance Orientation and John Henryism at the Intersection of Race and Class
Melissa Sanders & Ramaswami Mahalingam
Political Psychology, August 2012, Pages 553-573
Abstract:
Three studies were conducted to explore the relationship between social dominance orientation (SDO) and John Henryism (JH). Each study was framed using an intersectionality perspective which predicted that specific combinations of social identities would impact endorsement of SDO and JH in unique ways. We hypothesized that upper-class non-Whites would be higher in SDO and lower in JH than any other class/race identity combination. As predicted, a Class × Race interaction emerged for both SDO and JH in Study 1 (N = 387), with upper-class non-Whites displaying the highest levels of SDO and the lowest levels of JH. Study 2 (N = 340) replicated these findings and also explored the impact of context-level class on SDO and JH. Using a qualitative method, in Study 3 (N = 23) we found that upper-class non-Whites described their social class positions in ways highly consistent with SDO, whereas middle/working-class non-Whites described their experiences in ways consistent with JH.
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Racist Events and Individual Coping Styles as Predictors of African American Activism
Dawn Szymanski
Journal of Black Psychology, August 2012, Pages 342-367
Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to examine racist events and three individual coping styles (reflective, suppressive, and reactive) as predictors of involvement in African American activism in a sample of 269 African American women and men. In addition, it examined the moderating roles of individual coping styles in the racist events-African American activism link. Results indicated that racist events, reflective coping, and the interaction of racist events and reflective coping uniquely and significantly predicted involvement in African American activism, accounting for 33% of the variance. Racist events and reflective individual coping styles were related to involvement in African American activism. Results also supported a moderating role of individual reflective coping styles in the link between frequency of racist events and involvement in African American activism. That is, participants with high reflective coping engaged in more African American activism than participants with low reflective coping when experiences of racist events were low, but a larger number of racist events mitigated this effect.
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Ethnic identity and civic attitudes in Latino and Caucasian youth
Ashley Elizabeth Anglin, Julie Johnson-Pynn & Laura Renee Johnson
Journal of Youth Studies, Summer 2012, Pages 621-643
Abstract:
Understanding youth's perceptions of their civic skills is important for enriching the lives of youth as well as society. This study explored the relationship between civic attitudes, leadership skills, and ethnic identity in Northwest Georgia schools using two measures, the Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire (CASQ) and the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM). In sharp contrast with Georgia school demographics, these schools are predominately Latino/a. Within our sample population (N=1000), we expected that Latino/a students would score higher on both measures compared with Caucasian students based on research, which suggests that a strong ethnic identity is related to social justice concerns. On the contrary, Caucasian students scored higher on 4/6 domains of the CASQ. On the MEIM, Latino/a students scored lower than Caucasian students on both subscales. However, Latino/a students scored significantly higher than Caucasian students on items relating to participation in cultural activities. Our results suggest that Caucasian students perceived community-wide action and leadership as their civic strengths, whereas Latino/a students reported civic action limited to their cultural group and expressed less confidence in leadership skills. This has implications for designing programs to promote civic engagement in youth. There is no ‘one size fits all' approach to engendering civic learning and action.