Variation in black anti-white bias and target distancing cues: factors that influence perceptions of "ambiguously racist" behavior

Experiment 1 indicated that when the White supervisor's negative treatment of a Black subordinate was unconstrained, participant race had no impact on attributions. Conversely, when the treatment was constrained, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Experiment 2 indicated that when the supervisor reported no response or a minimal negative response (i.e., indicating that he did not support his actions) after his negative treatment of the Black subordinate, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Conversely, when the supervisor's negative treatment was followed by a more extreme negative response, participant race had no impact on attributions. Experiment 3 indicated that Black participants were less likely than White participants to perceive a minimal negative response as reflecting a White supervisor's lack of support for his negative actions. Conversely, participant race had no impact on attributions of a Black supervisor's negative actions.     

Rodney King and O. J. Revisited: The Impact of Race and Defendant Empathy Induction on Judicial Decisions

White university students participated in a study to investigate the impact of defendant race and empathetic induction on a subsequent juror decision-making task. Participants read a passage involving a Black or a White defendant in a criminal case. They were subsequently induced to feel no empathy, low empathy, or high empathy for the defendant. When compared to participants in the low- and control empathy conditions, those in the high-empathy condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. The results also indicate that group membership can moderate the impact of empathetic induction. When compared to the participants in the Black defendant condition, those in the White defendant condition reported greater target empathy, made attributions that were more situational, and assigned more lenient punishments. Implications for both empathy and judicial decision-making research are discussed.     

Stereotypic explanatory bias: Implicit stereotyping as a predictor of discrimination

Two experiments examined whether a measure of implicit stereotyping based on the tendency to explain Black stereotype-incongruent events more often than Black stereotype-congruent events (Stereotypic Explanatory Bias or SEB) is predictive of behavior toward a partner in an interracial interaction. In Experiment 1 SEB predicted White males’ choice to ask stereotypic questions of a Black female (but not a White male or White female) in an interview. In Experiment 2 the type of explanation (internal or external attribution) made for stereotype-inconsistency was examined. Results showed that White participants who made internal attributions for Black stereotype-incongruent behavior were rated more positively and those who made external attributions were rated more negatively by a Black male confederate. These results point to the potential of implicit stereotyping as an important predictor of behavior in an interracial interaction.     

Prototypes of Discrimination: How Status Asymmetry and Stereotype Asymmetry Affect Judgments of Racial Discrimination

This research investigated status asymmetry and stereotype asymmetry features of the racial discrimination prototype. Consistent with status asymmetry predictions, Black observers made greater attributions to discrimination when the victim was Black and the perpetrator was White than when the roles were reversed. In contrast, White observers made similar attributions to discrimination, regardless of status asymmetry. In partial support of the stereotype asymmetry hypothesis, Black and White observers made greater attributions to discrimination for Black victims in a domain where Blacks are negatively stereotyped than positively stereotyped. However, attributions to discrimination for White victims were unaffected by the domain.     

“What's going on?” Racism,COVID-19, and centering the voices of Black youth

This study examined the impact of COVID-19 stress and experiences of racism on COVID-19 adaptability and activism among Black youth. The protective role of perceived peer and adult social support were examined. Data were analyzed from 123 Black youth (M_age = 15.44, 63% girls) from a school district in the Midwest. The findings revealed that more social support from adults increased Black youth adaptability (e.g., “ability to think through possible options to assist in the COVID-19 pandemic”). Perceived lower social support from adults predicted higher engagement in high-risk activism, and higher levels of peer social support were associated with higher levels of high-risk activism. Further, Black youth reporting higher levels of racism and adult social support were more likely to report higher levels of COVID-19 adaptability. Black youth reporting higher racism and peer social support engaged in high-risk activism. Black youth who reported high levels of racism and low perceived adult social support reported higher engagement in high-risk activism. Research and practice implications that support Black youth during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of racism and COVID-19 stress on well-being and activism are discussed.     

Doing better but feeling worse: an attributional account of achievement—self-esteem disparities in Asian American students

Asian American students often report lower self-esteem than their peers from other racial groups even though they are doing better academically. The current study attempted to explore this paradox from an attributional perspective. Academic achievement, self-esteem and attributions for academic failures (i.e., low ability and low effort) were examined in an ethnically diverse sample of 3546 White, Black, Latino, and Asian American 8th grade students (M_age?=?14.03 years) from California. Results showed that Asians had the highest grade point average but the lowest self-esteem among the four major racial/ethnic groups. Asians and Latinos also endorsed more low ability attributions than Whites and Blacks. The self-esteem gap between Asians and their White and Black peers was partly explained by more endorsement of low ability attributions. Implications for future research and interventions were discussed.     

Emotional Reactions to Interracial Achievement Outcomes1

Students interacted with a White or a Black partner on an achievement task. It was predicted that the anxiety elicited by interacting with an outgroup member would lead to amplified emotional reactions to achievement outcomes. Consistent with this prediction, emotional reactions to success were more positive with a Black partner than with a White partner, whereas emotional reactions to failure were more negative with a Black partner than with a White partner. In addition, under conditions of low public self-awareness, Black partners were given less credit for success and blamed more for failure than White partners. This prejudicial pattern of attributions disappeared under conditions of high public self-awareness.     

Do masks matter? Consumer perceptions of social media influencers who wear face masks amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The rapid spread of COVID-19 brought about an increased use of face masks among the general public. Focusing on disposable surgical masks in particular, this article examines consumer perceptions of and intentions toward social media influencers who wear such masks amid the pandemic. Drawing on the theory of product symbolism, this research experimentally demonstrates that masked (vs. unmasked) influencers remind consumers of highly competent healthcare professionals, leading in turn to greater competence inferences about and more favorable behavioral intentions toward these influencers. Additional analysis demonstrates that this effect might not hold for other groups of professionals who are considered relatively competent at the outset and/or whose profession is less reliant on external cues. Overall, this research suggests that apart from curtailing the spread of the pandemic, mask wearing might prove beneficial to certain groups of professionals, such as social media influencers, who have traditionally struggled to establish credibility. In a broader context, this research establishes mask wearing as a new form of nonverbal communication that warrants further examination.     

Categorising intersectional targets: An “either/and” approach to race- and gender-emotion congruity

Research on the interaction of emotional expressions with social category cues in face processing has focused on whether specific emotions are associated with single-category identities, thus overlooking the influence of intersectional identities. Instead, we examined how quickly people categorise intersectional targets by their race, gender, or emotional expression. In Experiment 1, participants categorised Black and White faces displaying angry, happy, or neutral expressions by either race or gender. Emotion influenced responses to men versus women only when gender was made salient by the task. Similarly, emotion influenced responses to Black versus White targets only when participants categorised by race. In Experiment 2, participants categorised faces by emotion so that neither category was more salient. As predicted, responses to Black women differed from those to both Black men and White women. Thus, examining race and gender separately is insufficient to understanding how emotion and social category cues are processed.     

General And Culturally Specific Factors Influencing Black And White Rape Survivors' Self-Esteem

Grounded in a culturally inclusive ecological model of sexual assault recovery framework, the influence of personal (e.g., prior victimization), rape context (e.g., degree of injury during last assault), and postrape response factors (e.g., general and cultural attributions, rape related coping) on self-esteem of Black and White college women, who were survivors of attempted and completed rape, were examined. As predicted, Black and White women identified similar general variables (e.g., general attributions) as important in the recovery process. Black women, however, identified a cultural factor (i.e., cultural attributions) as more important in influencing their reactions to the last rape compared to their White counterparts. Using path analysis, findings from this cross-sectional study indicated that severity of the last assault and prior victimization were related to lower self-esteem indirectly through avoidance coping strategies, and victim blame attributions for the latter. Results also suggested that the link between cultural attributions and self-esteem was explained through victim blame attributions, primarily for Black participants. The model accounted for 26% of variance in self-esteem.     

Afraid of one afraid of all: When threat associations spread across face-types

Fear can be acquired for objects not inherently associated with threat (e.g. birds), and this threat may generalize from prototypical to peripheral category members (e.g. crows vs. penguins). When categorizing people, pervasive stereotypes link Black men to assumed violence and criminality. Faces with Afrocentric features (prototypical) are more often associated with threat and criminality than non-Afrocentric (peripheral) faces regardless of whether the individual is Black or White. In this study, using a priming paradigm, threat associations related to negative racial stereotypes were tested as a vehicle for spreading fear across face-type categories. Results showed more negative than positive judgments for White face targets but only when the prime was primarily non-Afrocentric (i.e. Eurocentric). Black face targets were judged more negatively than positively regardless of prime. This suggests some cognitive processes related to threat generalizations of objects extend to complex social categories.     

Internal,external, genetic,or cultural? Lay theories about racial health disparities predict perceived threat,adherence, and policy support

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that Black and Latinx communities experienced a disproportionate burden of illness. The goal of this study is to investigate laypeople's attribution of these disparities. We hypothesized the following four potential attributions: external causes (e.g. systemic racism), internal causes (e.g. personal choices), cultural causes (e.g., being close knit), or genetic causes (e.g., being more vulnerable for genetic reasons). Data from 447 participants revealed that lay theories involving external factors were the most endorsed, whereas theories relating to genetic causes were the least endorsed. Our analyses further revealed that external attributions predicted broader COVID-19 relevant outcomes (i.e., perceived threat of COVID-19, adherence to CDC guidelines, and support for government policies in response to COVID-19), even after controlling for political orientation, participant race, and other attributions. This research provides insight into how lay people's explanations for disparities can predict their reactions to the pandemic.     

Explanations for racial discrimination: The effect of group discussion on intergroup attributions

Studied the effect of group discussion and racial group membership on attributions concerning the causes of racial discrimination. Twenty- four Black (mostly West Indian) and 24 White adolescents (age 16-19) were assigned in pairs to each cell of a 2 (Race of subject: Black/White) × 2 (Discussion/No Discussion) ‘mixed’ design. Each subject read four items exemplifying types of racial discrimination and attributed each to negative dispositions of Black people and/or discrimination by White authority figures (‘the system’). Subjects in the Discussion condition spent two minutes discussing each item prior to making their judgements. Ratings of ingroup and outgroup on eight attitudinal dimensions were also elicited, followed by a social distance measure. Multivariate analyses of variance revealed effects for racial group membership (p < 0.05) and group discussion (p < 0.05) on attributions. Further examination of the data by means of discriminant analyses indicated which items differentiate between the groups. Data based on the attitudinal ratings were also subjected to multivariate analyses and point to the positive group-image of the Black respondents and a lack of intergroup discrimination by the White subjects; the social distance scores of the latter subjects are, however, higher. Results are discussed in terms of the literature on group polarization and intergroup differentiation.     

Thinking of threats: Economic threat appraisals and health threat appraisals predict differential racial attitudes during COVID-19

We examined whether perceptions of the health and economic threats posed by COVID-19 predict different patterns of intergroup attitudes, using data gathered during the early phase of the pandemic. Using data from 1339 geographically and politically diverse White US residents, we show that subjective economic threat predicted general anti-outgroup attitudes, while subjective health threat predicted negative attitudes towards both Asian and Latinx (“stereotypically foreign”) outgroups but not towards other outgroups. Among 303 geographically and politically diverse Black US residents, the pattern instead suggested that threat (regardless of type) was associated with reduced evaluative differentiation between racial ingroups and outgroups.     

Multiracial Children’s and Adults’ Categorizations of Multiracial Individuals

Research has explored how multiracial individuals are categorized by monoracial individuals, but it has not yet explored how they are categorized by multiracial individuals themselves. We examined how multiracial children (aged 4–9 years old) and adults categorized multiracial targets (presented with and without parentage information). When parentage information was provided, multiracial targets were more likely to be categorized as neither wholly Black nor wholly White. However, both multiracial adults and children more often categorized multiracial targets as Black than as White regardless of the absence or presence of parentage information. For multiracial children, increased contact with White people predicted the tendency to categorize multiracial targets as Black. These data suggest that multiracial children’s categorizations are more flexible than those of monoracial children in previous research and that the tendency to categorize multiracial targets as Black emerges early in development within multiracial samples and is especially likely in predominantly White contexts.     

Do face masks undermine social connection?

Mask mandates were commonplace around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic and essential to slowing the spread of SARS-CoV-2. However, it is still unclear whether and how masks impact social bonding. Building on past research examining the effects of masking on emotion recognition and social perception, the current research examines the effect of masking on feelings of social connectedness. Three studies (total N = 177) using videotaped introductions of masked and unmasked peers and varied assessments of desire for social connectedness yielded no differences as a function of masking. Although participants reported more difficulty hearing masked (vs. unmasked) peers, masking did not significantly impact other facets of communication or perception related to social bonding. When participants filmed their own introductory videos (Study 3), results showed increased expressivity within the masked (vs. unmasked) conditions, perhaps as a compensatory measure to aid bonding. These findings speak to the resiliency of the human need to belong and belonging-maintenance processes.     

Look Black in anger: The role of implicit prejudice in the categorization and perceived emotional intensity of racially ambiguous faces

Research has demonstrated that individuals high in implicit prejudice are more likely to classify a racially ambiguous angry face as Black compared to individuals low in implicit prejudice [Hugenberg, K., & Bodenhausen, G. V. (2004). Ambiguity in social categorization. Psychological Science, 15, 342-345]. The current study sought to replicate and extend this finding by examining whether the same expression of anger on a racially ambiguous face is perceived to be differentially intense when the face is judged to be Black or White. White participants viewed racially ambiguous, White, and Black faces displaying angry, neutral, or happy emotions. Participants’ task was to identify the race, emotion, and intensity of emotion display. The results revealed that participants high in implicit prejudice reported significantly more of the racially ambiguous angry faces as Black compared to participants low in implicit prejudice. Further, participants high in implicit prejudice reported the intensity of the racially ambiguous angry emotion as greater when the same face had been categorized as Black compared to White. The results suggest that implicit prejudice is not only associated with the racial categorization of an ambiguous face but also the perceived intensity of the emotion displayed.     

Pain in the eye of the beholder: Variations in pain visual representations as a function of face ethnicity and culture

Pain experienced by Black individuals is systematically underestimated, and recent studies have shown that part of this bias is rooted in perceptual factors. We used Reverse Correlation to estimate visual representations of the pain expression in Black and White faces, in participants originating from both Western and African countries. Groups of raters were then asked to evaluate the presence of pain and other emotions in these representations. A second group of White raters then evaluated those same representations placed over a neutral background face (50% White; 50% Black). Image-based analyses show significant effects of culture and face ethnicity, but no interaction between the two factors. Western representations were more likely to be judged as expressing pain than African representations. For both cultural groups, raters also perceived more pain in White face representations than in Black face representations. However, when changing the background stimulus to the neutral background face, this effect of face ethnic profile disappeared. Overall, these results suggest that individuals have different expectations of how pain is expressed by Black and White individuals, and that cultural factors may explain a part of this phenomenon     

Subjective social status and intergroup attitudes among ethnic majority and minority children in Portugal

A measure of subjective social status (SSS) was examined among high (White), and low (Black and Roma) ethnic status children in Portugal within a developmental design including 6–8‐year‐old and 9–12‐year‐old children. White children favoured their in‐group over the Black and Roma out‐groups on the SSS measure, social preferences and positive as well as negative trait attributions. Generally, the Black and Roma showed equal SSS, preferences and trait attribution for their in‐group and the high status White out‐group, but not the other low‐status out‐group. With age White children generally demonstrated higher SSS for Black and Roma, preferred them more and attributed more positive traits. For low‐status groups, an age effect was found only for Black children who preferred the Roma more with age and attributed more positive traits. Changes on preferences and trait attribution depending on age‐group were mediated by SSS. It is concluded that minority group's SSS does not parallel the objective status hierarchy but, rather, is a dynamic reorganisation of group's relative positions serving strategies to cope with their minority condition.