Specificity and incremental predictive validity of implicit attitudes: studies of a race-based phenotype

Four studies involving 2552 White American participants were conducted to investigate bias based on the race-based phenotype of hair texture. Specifically, we probed the existence and magnitude of bias in favor of Eurocentric (straight) over Afrocentric (curly) hair and its specificity in predicting responses to a legal decision involving the phenotype. Study 1 revealed an implicit preference, measured by an Implicit Association Test (IAT), favoring Eurocentric over Afrocentric hair texture among White Americans. This effect was not reducible to a Black/White implicit race attitude nor to mere perceptual preference favoring straight over curly hair. In Study 2, the phenotype (hair) IAT significantly and uniquely predicted expressions of support in response to an actual legal case that involved discrimination on the basis of Afrocentric hair texture. Beyond replicating this result, Studies 3 and 4 (the latter preregistered) provided further, and even more stringent, evidence for incremental predictive validity: in both studies, the phenotype IAT was associated with support for a Black plaintiff above and beyond the effects of two parallel explicit scales and, additionally, a race attitude IAT. Overall, these studies support the idea that race bias may be uniquely detected by examining implicit attitudes elicited by group-based phenotypicality, such as hair texture. Moreover, the present results inform theoretical investigations of the correspondence principle in the context of implicit social cognition: they suggest that tailoring IATs to index specific aspects of an attitude object (e.g., by decomposition of phenotypes) can improve prediction of intergroup behavior.

Usefulness of PRP Therapy in Androgenic Alopecia

Alopecia means loss of hair. Primarily there are two types of alopecia. Non-cicatricial alopecia and Cicatricial alopecia. Androgenic alopecia is non cicatricial localized alopecia and displays relatively high rates of occurrence in both men and women. Injections of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) have shown to be a successful regenerative treatment for androgenic alopecia. It is a well-tolerated procedure and easy to perform. The objective clinical results are good. It is safe and non-allergenic. In our institution, more than 300 patients were given PRP and their terminal hair mass, hair texture, anagen/telogen hair ratio, keratinocyte proliferation, blood vessel density, and other factors were assessed. More than 85 percent of patients who underwent PRP treatment, had a very positive outcome.

Hair colouring: what a dermatologist should know?

<p>Hair is an important part of body and a major factor in self-image. A wide variety of hair cosmetic preparations are available and are used regularly by most of the world’s population. Hair colouring is one of the commonly done procedure. However, any chemical treatment, normal grooming habits and environmental exposure can produce changes in hair texture or hair breakage. It is necessary for a dermatologist to know the basis of hair colouring, the procedure and the possible side effects it can cause. Also post colour care is also to be known about to prevent further damage to treated hair. This article explains the basic chemistry and mechanism involved in hair dyeing and the basic facts a dermatologist should know.</p>

Sister Style

Sister Style: The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites centers Black women’s bodies, specifically their hair texture and skin tone, to argue that phenotypic differences among Black women politicians directly impact how they experience political office and how Black voters evaluate them. The book brings together an interdisciplinary, multi-method, and blended epistemological approach of positivism and interpretivism to ask whether African American women’s appearances provide a more nuanced lens through which to study how their raced-gendered identities impact their candidacies and shape their political behavior. The authors take a deep dive into intersectional theory-building, through which they examine the intra-categorical differences among Black women. They find that Black women vary in their political experiences because of their appearances, and that dominant, Eurocentric beauty standards influence the electoral chances of Black women. They observe that skin tone and hair texture, along with the historical legacies that have shaped the current cultural and political contexts, dictate Black women elites’ political experiences and voter evaluations of them. The book asks the following questions: What do the politics of appearance for Black women mean for Black women politicians and for Black voters who evaluate them? What are the origins of the contemporary focus on Black women’s bodies in public life? How do Black women politicians themselves make sense of the politics of appearance? Is there a phenotypic profile into which most Black women politicians fit? What is the effect of variation in Black women’s phenotypes for candidate evaluations? And how do voters process the appearances of Black women candidates?

Body-directed gesture and expressions of social difference in Chachi and Afro-Ecuadorian discourse

This paper presents an analysis of a data set consisting of instances of body-directed gesture that occurred in racializing expressions of social difference during ethnographic interviews with two neighboring peoples of Ecuador: the indigenous Chachi, speakers of the Cha’palaa language, and Afro-Descendant people, who speak a variety of Spanish. When talking about differences among social groups and categories, a particular sub-type of body-directed gestural practice was salient: using indexical-iconic self-directed gestures as a way to describe other people’s physical bodies or appearances, including references to skin color, hair texture, clothing and ornamentation, and embodiments of carrying objects close to the body. The paper describes the trends seen in the forms and meanings of these gestures in their role here as part of socially categorizing and racializing discourses in the Latin American socio-historical context.