scholarly journals The Way They Look: Phenotypic Prototypicality Shapes the Perceived Intergroup Attitudes of In- and Out-group Members

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonas R. Kunst ◽  
John Dovidio ◽  
April Bailey ◽  
Milan Obaidi
Keyword(s):  
Causal Effect ◽  
General Tendency ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Interracial Interactions ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Personal Attitudes ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Extended Experiment

Even when people hold little prejudice themselves, expectations about how members of other groups perceive them may negatively influence interracial interactions. In four pre-registered experiments each using a full intergroup design with Black and White participants, we show that people infer negative meta-attitudes from out-group members’ whose appearance is phenotypically prototypical, which in turn leads to less favorable orientations towards intergroup contact, independent of personal attitudes. In Experiment 1, Black Americans but not White Americans, perceived phenotypically prototypical out-group members to hold less favorable meta-attitudes and this explained less favorable contact orientations. In Experiment 2, this pattern emerged for both groups of participants and was pronounced among stigma conscious individuals. Experiment 3 replicated and extended Experiment 2 with representative samples, further demonstrating that the effect of phenotypic prototypicality is pronounced among participants who report previous rejection by the out-group. In Experiment 4, direct evidence for the causal effect of the mediator meta-attitudes on orientations toward contact was obtained. In all studies, effects held controlling for participants’ general intergroup attitudes and experiences, demonstrating the unique role of attitudes at the meta-perceptual level in shaping intergroup relations. Participants also perceived phenotypically prototypical in-group members as having less favorable intergroup attitudes, suggesting a general tendency to infer meta-attitudes from phenotypic prototypicality. We discuss our results in light of previous research, highlight social implications, and suggest future directions.

TRENDS: Racial Resentment and Public Opinion across the Racial Divide

2019 ◽  
Vol 72 (4) ◽  
pp. 767-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cindy D. Kam ◽  
Camille D. Burge
Keyword(s):  
Public Opinion ◽  
Racial Inequality ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Resentment ◽  
Quantitative Examination ◽  
Racial Divide ◽  
Black Public Opinion

Research on racial resentment has been meticulously developed, tested, and analyzed with white Americans in mind—yet black Americans have also responded to this battery for the past three decades. To date, little to nothing is known about the implications of responses to the racial resentment battery among black Americans. A burgeoning literature on blacks’ intragroup attitudes suggests that over time, black Americans have increasingly attributed racial inequality to individual failings as opposed to structural forces. As such, unpacking blacks’ responses to the canonical racial resentment battery may provide further insight into the micro-foundations of black public opinion. Using survey data from 1986 to 2016, we engage in a systematic quantitative examination of the role of racial resentment in predicting black and white Americans’ opinions on racial policies, “race-coded” policies, and nonracialized policies. Along the way, we highlight the existence of wide heterogeneity among black respondents and call for further investigation that identifies similarities and differences in the foundations of white and black public opinion.

When extended contact opens the door to future contact

2011 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angel Gómez ◽  
Linda R. Tropp ◽  
Saulo Fernández
Keyword(s):  
Minority Group ◽  
The Self ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Intergroup Anxiety ◽  
Mediating Role ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Extended Contact ◽  
Group Members

The present research tests whether extended contact can predict positive intergroup expectancies, as well as positive intergroup attitudes, among majority and minority group members. Our results replicate and extend prior work by showing that extended contact predicts both positive intergroup attitudes and intergroup expectancies among both majority (Spanish) and minority (immigrant) participants, even when controlling for direct friendship and the quantity and quality of prior intergroup contact. These effects are partially mediated by intergroup anxiety, perceived ingroup norms, and perceived outgroup norms, and the positive effects of extended contact on intergroup attitudes were also partially mediated by the inclusion of ingroup in the self. Additionally, the mediating role of outgroup norms was stronger among immigrant participants than among Spanish participants. Implications of these findings and the value of extended contact for promoting positive intergroup expectancies and preparing people for future contact are discussed.

scholarly journals When Race Matters and When It Doesn't: Racial Group Differences in Response to Racial Cues

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (2) ◽  
pp. 339-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
ISMAIL K. WHITE
Keyword(s):  
African Americans ◽  
Racial Differences ◽  
Group Identification ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Verbal Cues ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Racial Cues

Building on previous research on the effects of racial priming on the opinions of White Americans, this paper engages the question of how exposure to racial cues in political messages shapes the opinions of African Americans. I argue that explanations of racial priming that focus exclusively on White Americans are insufficient to explain how racial cues influence the opinions of Black Americans, as they fail to account for the activation of in-group attitudes and mis-specify the role of explicit racial cues. In two separate laboratory experiments, I test the effects of explicitly racial, implicitly racial, and nonracial verbal cues on both Black and White Americans' assessments of an ostensibly nonracial issue. The results point to important racial differences in the effectiveness of explicit and implicit racial verbal cues in activating racial thinking about an issue. Only frames that provide oblique references to race successfully activated racial out-group resentment for Whites. Among Blacks, explicit references to race most reliably elicited racial thinking by activating racial in-group identification, whereas the effect of implicit cues was moderated by the activation of negative representations of the in group. These findings not only demonstrate that racial attitude activation works differently for African Americans than for Whites but also challenge conventional wisdom that African Americans see all political issues through a racial lens.

scholarly journals Good Cop, Bad Cop: Race-Based Differences in Mental Representations of Police

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (8) ◽  
pp. 1205-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Paige Lloyd ◽  
Mattea Sim ◽  
Evans Smalley ◽  
Michael J. Bernstein ◽  
Kurt Hugenberg
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Mental Representations ◽  
Minority Group ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Reverse Correlation ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Citizen Interactions ◽  
Correlation Procedure

The current work investigates race-based biases in conceptualization of the facial appearance of police. We employ a reverse correlation procedure to demonstrate that Black Americans, relative to White Americans, conceptualize police officers’ faces as more negative, less positive, and more dominant. We further find that these differential representations have implications for interactions with police. When naïve participants (of various races) viewed images of police officers generated by Black Americans (relative to those generated by White Americans), they responded with greater anticipated anxiety and reported more fight-or-flight behavioral intentions. Across four studies, findings suggest Black and White Americans conceptualize police and police–citizen interactions fundamentally differently. These findings have important theoretical (e.g., using reverse correlation to document the mental representations held by minority group members) and practical implications (e.g., identifying race-based differences in representations of police that may affect community–police relations).

scholarly journals Conditional secondary transfer effect: The moderating role of moral credentials and prejudice

2020 ◽  
pp. 136843022094040
Author(s):  
Inga Jasinskaja-Lahti ◽  
Loris Vezzali ◽  
Mona Ranta ◽  
Maria Giuseppina Pacilli ◽  
Mauro Giacomantonio ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intergroup Contact ◽  
Transfer Effect ◽  
Intergroup Attitudes ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Moral Licensing ◽  
Majority Group ◽  
Secondary Transfer ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Moderating Role

This survey experiment examined the role of prejudice and moral licensing as two moderators of the secondary transfer effect (STE) of positive and negative intergroup contact. We collected a quota-randomized sample of 299 majority Finns (52.6% female; experimental condition: n = 118, control condition: n = 181) in order to test whether moral credentials prevent attitude generalization (from primary towards secondary outgroup), particularly among prejudiced individuals. The results showed that STEs of both positive and negative contact were prevented among more prejudiced majority group members who had the possibility to obtain moral credentials in the moral licensing task. These results point at the unstable nature of attitude generalization in STE among prejudiced individuals and at the potential of a normative moral act to intervene into the generalization of intergroup attitudes following intergroup contact. We discuss these findings in relation to the literature on moral licensing and moral reinforcement, framing them in the context of an integration of contact research and research on morality in general.

scholarly journals Cracking wise to break the ice: The potential for racial humor to ease interracial anxiety

2020 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-135
Author(s):  
Alex M. Borgella ◽  
Simon Howard ◽  
Keith B. Maddox
Keyword(s):  
Minority Group ◽  
Anxiety Reduction ◽  
Intergroup Dialogue ◽  
Negative Outcomes ◽  
Interracial Interactions ◽  
Disparagement Humor ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Group Members ◽  
The Impact

AbstractWe explore the idea that humor focused on social group disparities can be a viable tool to reduce some of the negative outcomes associated with interracial interactions. These interactions are crucial in promoting common understanding about the causes of social, educational, and economic disparities and crafting solutions to redress them. However, investigations have demonstrated that interracial interactions can be emotionally and cognitively taxing, and for these reasons are often avoided. When not avoided, these interactions often result in negative outcomes. Anxiety has been identified as a key factor in these outcomes as majority group members cope with concerns over appearing biased and minority group members cope with concerns over being discriminated against. Humor may be able to alleviate anxiety that contributes to negative outcomes associated with intergroup dialogue. To explore this claim, we first review the literature on interracial interactions and the role of anxiety in shaping them. We then discuss investigations exploring the impact of group-related humor, specifically disparagement humor, on intergroup perceptions. Finally, we draw from both literatures to consider factors that might determine race-related humor’s potential to facilitate positive interracial dialogue through anxiety reduction. We conclude with some possible areas for further research.

What to Do? Predicting Coping Strategies Following Ingroup Members’ Stereotypical Behaviors in Interracial Interactions

2020 ◽  
pp. 014616722096026
Author(s):  
Valerie Jones Taylor ◽  
Caitlyn Yantis ◽  
Courtney Bonam ◽  
Ayana Hart
Keyword(s):  
Coping Strategies ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Psychological Resources ◽  
Interracial Interactions ◽  
Negative Behaviors ◽  
Intergroup Anxiety ◽  
Interracial Interaction ◽  
Intergroup Encounters

The current studies examine how witnessing stereotype-confirming ingroup behavior affects black Americans’ interactions with white Americans. Across three studies, black Americans indicated metaperceptual, emotional, and behavioral responses to witnessing a black person’s stereotypically negative, stereotypically positive, or nonstereotypically neutral behavior during an interracial (vs. intraracial) interaction. Following an ingroup member’s stereotypically negative (vs. stereotypically positive in Study 1, or nonstereotypically neutral in Studies 2–3) behavior during an interracial interaction, black Americans expressed greater metastereotypes, which increased intergroup anxiety, ultimately eliciting nuanced coping strategies: engagement/overcompensation, antagonism, freezing, or avoidance. Psychological resources attenuated anxiety’s effect on engagement/overcompensation (Studies 2–3) and freezing (Study 3). Both patterns were stronger in interracial (vs. intraracial) interactions (Study 3). This research demonstrates the central role of metaperceptions in interracial interactions, highlighting how stereotypically negative behaviors of nearby ingroup members are impactful situational stressors that affect behavioral intentions in intergroup encounters.

scholarly journals Lay Beliefs About Who Can Bridge the Black–White Racial Gap During Interracial Exchanges

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062110381
Author(s):  
Leigh S. Wilton ◽  
Aneeta Rattan ◽  
Samantha Abrams ◽  
Yedili Genao-Perez
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Perspective Taking ◽  
White Americans ◽  
Perceived Effectiveness ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Total N ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Lay Beliefs ◽  
Racial Gap ◽  
Group Members

For group discussions about fraught racial topics between Black and White Americans to be beneficial, conversation participants must view the person who facilitates as effective at communicating both the perspectives of Black and White Americans. We identify a biracial advantage in this domain. In three studies (total N = 710), we tested how a facilitator’s race affects their perceived effectiveness in communicating with both Black and White Americans. Both Black and White participants expected Black and White monoracial facilitators to more effectively engage with racial in-group than racial out-group members. However, they expected biracial facilitators to be equally effective in communicating with both Black and White groups. Both Black and White participants also expected biracial facilitators to use productive learning strategies (perspective taking, showing empathy) more than White facilitators, and either more than or equally to Black facilitators, suggesting one reason why people expect biracial facilitators to perform well in these moments.

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