Skin tone
Revisiting Stereotypes of Non-White Politicians' Ideological and Partisan Orientations
Philip Edward Jones
American Politics Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
This research revisits when and how voters use race as a cue for politicians' ideological and partisan orientations. Using an embedded survey experiment that manipulates the race and policy positions of a (fictitious) Member of Congress, I provide a more comprehensive view of the role of ideological and partisan stereotypes in impression formation. Voters perceive non-White politicians as more liberal and more likely to be Democrats than otherwise-identical White politicians. This stereotyping persists even when the politician takes counter-stereotypical positions (e.g., a Black or Hispanic politician with a conservative record), and shapes non-White legislators' approval ratings in significant ways.
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Antoine Banks & Melissa Bell
Public Opinion Quarterly, Summer 2013, Pages 549-560
Abstract:
Despite pundits and scholars suggesting that racial appeals play to voters' emotions, very little is known about the emotional impact of these appeals. Most of the research on racial priming seems to conflate the effect of negative emotions. Our theory suggests that anger and fear, in the context of an implicit racial appeal, influence whites' views about race differently. We suspect this effect occurs because anger and whites' negative racial attitudes are tightly linked in memory. Using an experiment over two waves, we induce anger and fear from an implicit racialized campaign ad and find that anger uniquely boosts opposition to racial policies among white racial conservatives. We also find that anger from an implicit racial appeal motivates racial liberals to be more supportive of racial policies.
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Amy Krosch et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
According to the principle of hypodescent, multiracial individuals are categorized according to their most socially subordinate group membership. We investigated whether the tendency to apply this principle is related to political ideology. In three studies, participants categorized a series of morphed faces that varied in terms of racial ambiguity. In each study, self-reported conservatism (vs. liberalism) was associated with the tendency to categorize ambiguous faces as Black. Consistent with the notion that system justification motivation helps to explain ideological differences in racial categorization, the association between conservatism and hypodescent was mediated by individual differences in opposition to equality (Study 2) and was stronger when U.S. participants categorized American than Canadian faces (Study 3). We discuss ways in which the categorization of racially ambiguous individuals in terms of their most subordinate racial group may exacerbate inequality and vulnerability to discrimination.
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Tiffany Brannon & Gregory Walton
Psychological Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
In the present research, we examined the hypothesis that cues of social connectedness to a member of another social group can spark interest in the group's culture, and that such interest, when freely enacted, contributes to reductions in intergroup prejudice. In two pilot studies and Experiment 1, we found that extant and desired cross-group friendships and cues of social connectedness to an out-group member predicted increased interest in the target group's culture. In Experiments 2 and 3, we manipulated cues of social connectedness between non-Latino American participants and a Latino American (i.e., Mexican American) peer and whether participants freely worked with this peer on a Mexican cultural task. This experience reduced the participants' implicit bias against Latinos, an effect that was mediated by increased cultural engagement, and, 6 months later in an unrelated context, improved intergroup outcomes (e.g., interest in interacting with Mexican Americans; Experiment 4). The Discussion section addresses the inter- and intragroup benefits of policies that encourage people to express and share diverse cultural interests in mainstream settings.
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Matthew Baldwin et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, July 2013, Pages 505-515
Abstract:
The cross-race effect (CRE) is the tendency to remember same-race (SR) faces better than cross-race (CR) faces. While there has been debate about the causes of the CRE, recent perspectives suggest that a lack of motivation to remember CR faces causes this effect. We provide direct support for this model across two studies manipulating the perceived importance of target faces. In Study 1 participants were outcome-dependent on a Black or White research partner. When participants were dependent on a Black partner compared with a White partner, the CRE was reduced through an increase in Black face recognition. In Study 2 we used a novel procedure to increase the perceptual size of target faces. According to conceptual metaphor theory, targets that appear subjectively large will be perceived as more important. We found that the CRE was eliminated when CR faces appeared larger than SR faces.
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The role of mediated sports programming on implicit racial stereotypes
Matthew Kobach & Robert Potter
Sport in Society, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous content analyses show that televised sports programming attributes athletic success achieved by Black athletes to athleticism whereas success for White athletes is attributed to hard work and intelligence. This research explores whether the amount of such programming a person views affects attitudes held about Black and White athletes. Using a unique version of the Implicit Association Test, a strong association was found between images of White athletes and ‘smart' athlete words, whereas Black athletes were more strongly associated with ‘natural' athlete words. Furthermore, results from a mediated sports-consumption survey suggest that there is a significant positive correlation with the amount of sports programming a participant is exposed to and the strength of these stereotypical associations.
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Danielle Young, Diana Sanchez & Leigh Wilton
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Racial essentialism refers to the widely held belief that race is a biological, stable, and natural category. Although research finds very little evidence that race has biological underpinnings, racial essentialist beliefs persist and are linked to negative outgroup consequences. This study initially demonstrates that label and visual ambiguity concurrently inform racial categorization. It then tests whether exposure to racially ambiguous targets (a) challenges essentialism when ambiguous targets are labeled with biracial categories and (b) reinforces essentialism when ambiguous targets identify with monoracial categories. The results showed that White perceivers (N = 84) who were exposed to racially ambiguous, biracially labeled targets showed reductions in their essentialist thinking about race, whereas perceivers who were exposed to racially ambiguous, monoracially labeled targets showed increases in their essentialist beliefs.
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James Johnson & Leslie Ashburn-Nardo
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present experiment examined identity denial and reduced empathy for in-group (vs. out-group) targets as a function of the racial composition of their social networks. Black participants rated in-group (Black) targets as more weakly racially identified and expressed less empathy for in-group targets with cross-race close friends versus same-race close friends or no friends. Furthermore, the effect of social network composition on empathy was mediated by perceived racial identity. These findings were limited to the in-group target. Although the out-group (White) target was rated as more weakly identified when shown with cross-race close friends versus same-race close friends or no friends, neither social network composition nor perceived racial identity predicted empathy for the out-group target. These findings extend previous research on identity denial and suggest that, for Blacks, closely associating with Whites undermines the usually robust pattern of in-group empathy.
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Kids Talking About Race: Tween-agers in a Post-Civil Rights Era
Barbara Risman & Pallavi Banerjee
Sociological Forum, June 2013, Pages 213-235
Abstract:
Our research examines how American children understand and talk about how race matters in their everyday lives. We draw on interviews with 44 middle school children who attend schools in an integrated county-wide system and find that while some use color-blind rhetoric, most children in our study know that race matters, while they offer alternative accounts for why and how. Some explain race as social inequality, while others offer cultural accounts of racial differences. Our analysis suggests that for white children, gender matters; more girls describe racial inequality than boys. For children of color, class seems to be key, with middle-class children giving cultural explanations, including negative evaluations of others in their own racial group. We use an intersectionality framework to analyze the alternative and complex narratives children give for their own experiences of race and race relations between peers.
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Age and race differences in racial stereotype awareness and endorsement
Kristine Copping et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, May 2013, Pages 971-980
Abstract:
Age and race differences in race stereotype awareness and endorsement were examined in 382 Black and White fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Youths reported their own beliefs and their perceptions of adults' beliefs about racial differences in ability in two domains: academics and sports. Children's own endorsement of race stereotypes was highly correlated with their perceptions of adults' race stereotypes. Blacks reported stronger traditional sports stereotypes than Whites, and 4th- and 6th-grade Blacks reported roughly egalitarian academic stereotypes. At every grade level, Whites reported academic stereotypes that favored Whites, and 6th- and 8th-grade Whites reported sports stereotypes that favored Blacks. Results support the tenets of status theory and have implications for identity development and achievement motivation in adolescents.
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Katharina Krämer et al.
PLoS ONE, June 2013
Abstract:
Emotional facial expressions provide important nonverbal cues in human interactions. The perception of emotions is not only influenced by a person's ethnic background but also depends on whether a person is engaged with the emotion-encoder. Although these factors are known to affect emotion perception, their impact has only been studied in isolation before. The aim of the present study was to investigate their combined influence. Thus, in order to study the influence of engagement on emotion perception between persons from different ethnicities, we compared participants from China and Germany. Asian-looking and European-looking virtual agents expressed anger and happiness while gazing at the participant or at another person. Participants had to assess the perceived valence of the emotional expressions. Results indicate that indeed two factors that are known to have a considerable influence on emotion perception interacted in their combined influence: We found that the perceived intensity of an emotion expressed by ethnic in-group members was in most cases independent of gaze direction, whereas gaze direction had an influence on the emotion perception of ethnic out-group members. Additionally, participants from the ethnic out-group tended to perceive emotions as more pronounced than participants from the ethnic in-group when they were directly gazed at. These findings suggest that gaze direction has a differential influence on ethnic in-group and ethnic out-group dynamics during emotion perception.
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Ethnic discrimination: Lessons from the Israeli online market for used cars
Asaf Zussman
Economic Journal, forthcoming
Abstract:
Using a combination of randomized field experiments, follow-up telephone surveys and other data collection efforts, this paper studies the extent and the sources of ethnic discrimination in the Israeli online market for used cars. We find robust evidence of discrimination against Arab buyers and sellers which, the analysis suggests, is motivated by "statistical" rather than "taste" considerations. We additionally find that Arab sellers manipulate their ethnic identity in the market by leaving the name field in their ads blank.
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The Dynamics of Intergroup Helping: The Case of Subtle Bias Against Latinos
Silvia Abad-Merino et al.
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Despite the traditional importance of Latinos in the U.S., the growing Latino population, and evidence of group-based disparities, psychological studies of discrimination against Latinos are surprisingly rare. The present research investigated the relationship between prejudice against Latinos and subtle bias, specifically the degree to which people offer autonomy-oriented relative to dependency-oriented assistance to a Latina in need. Participants read scenarios that described concrete social problems faced by particular Latinas, African Americans, or Whites and then indicated their support for forms of helping. Participants higher in prejudice against Latinos, assessed with an adaptation of the Modern Racism Scale, were less likely to offer autonomy-oriented help, and significantly more so after reading scenarios about a Latina than about an African American or a White woman. These findings extend previous work by identifying, experimentally, subtle bias against Latinas in helping and directly implicate the role of prejudice against Latinos in this process.
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Black Supporters of Racial Profiling: A Demographic Profile
Shaun Gabbidon, George Higgins & Kideste Wilder-Bonner
Criminal Justice Policy Review, July 2013, Pages 422-440
Abstract:
As an anomaly of extant literature that maintains Blacks as a collective are less supportive of racial profiling than other ethnic groups, this article explores the backgrounds of Blacks who support the practice of racial profiling (referred to as Black Supporters). This study analyzed a national Gallup poll that included measures on profiling and had a significant number of Black respondents (N = 534). Black Supporters tended to be female; live in the Southern United States; and be politically conservative. Although multivariate analyses revealed few differences between Black Supporters and nonsupporters, the study represents an earnest attempt to explore Black support for a policing strategy that has both historically and contemporarily had negative effects on Black communities. We conclude the article by discussing the benefits of studying Black Supporters.
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Are Smart People Less Racist? Cognitive Ability, Anti-black Prejudice, and the Principle-Policy Paradox
Geoffrey Thomas Wodtke
University of Michigan Working Paper, August 2013
Abstract:
Researchers commonly hypothesize that higher cognitive abilities provide an enlightened outlook that is less vulnerable to racial intolerance, and prior studies document negative effects of cognitive ability on anti-black prejudice among white respondents. An alternative theoretical framework contends that these ‘enlightening' effects are an element of a refined legitimizing ideology for racial inequality that intelligent whites are best equipped to articulate. According to ideological refinement theory, this ideology emerged over time in response to shifting racial conflict and is characterized by rejection of overt prejudice, superficial support for racial equality in principle, and opposition to policies that challenge white privilege. Previous studies, which focus only on prejudice and do not consider temporal heterogeneity in the attitudinal effects of cognitive ability, fail to properly adjudicate these conflicting perspectives. This study estimates the impact of cognitive ability on a more comprehensive set of attitudes, including anti-black prejudice, views about black-white equality in principle, and racial policy support, and it investigates cohort differences in the effects of cognitive ability on these attitudes. Results suggest that whites with higher cognitive ability are less likely to report prejudiced attitudes and more likely to support racial integration in principle; yet despite these liberalizing effects, high-ability whites are no more likely to support open housing laws and are less likely to support school busing and affirmative action programs. Results also suggest that the liberalizing effects of cognitive ability on anti-black prejudice and views about racial equality emerged slowly over time, consistent with ideological refinement theory.
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Robert Ridge & Jared Montoya
Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We assessed religious volunteers' intergroup contact, realistic threat perceptions, symbolic threat perceptions, intergroup anxiety, negative stereotypes and prejudice toward Mexicans before and approximately 4-6 months into their volunteer service. Whether assigned to serve Mexicans or European-Americans, all volunteers experienced reduced prejudice toward Mexicans. A multiple mediator model suggests that changes in prejudice resulted from a mediated relationship between quality contact and prejudice. Specifically, intergroup anxiety and negative stereotypes mediated the relationship. The benefits of volunteerism as a means of fostering favorable intergroup contact and reducing threat perceptions and prejudice are discussed.