Playing against type
Rebecca Wickes et al.
Criminology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Research shows that residents report high levels of disorder in places with greater concentrations of minorities even after controlling for objective indicators of crime or disorder. Less understood, however, are the mechanisms that explain this relationship. Drawing on a survey of nearly 10,000 residents nested within 297 neighborhoods across two cities, we use a multiple indicators-multiple causes model to examine the cues that lead individuals to distort the presence of minorities in neighborhoods. We then employ multilevel models to test whether these distortions influence perceptions of disorder. Furthermore, we assess whether living in a socially cohesive neighborhood mediates and/or moderates the relationship between "seeing" minorities and perceiving disorder. We find that when residents overestimate the proportion of minorities living in their neighborhood, perceptions of disorder are heightened. Yet social cohesion moderates and partially mediates this relationship: Residents living in socially cohesive neighborhoods not only report less disorder than those living in less cohesive communities, but also they "see" fewer minorities when compared with residents living in less socially cohesive neighborhoods. These results suggest that social cohesion is an important mechanism for explaining how residents internalize the presence of minorities in their neighborhoods and how this then leads to perceived neighborhood disorder.
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"I Guess What He Said Wasn't That Bad": Dissonance in Nonconfronting Targets of Prejudice
Heather Rasinski, Andrew Geers & Alexander Czopp
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although confrontations can be an effective means of reducing prejudicial responding, individuals often do not confront others due to the interpersonal costs. In the present research, we examined the intrapersonal implications of not confronting prejudice. In three studies, female participants were exposed to a confederate who made a sexist remark. Consistent with self-justification theories, in Study 1, participants who valued confronting and were given the opportunity to confront - but did not - subsequently made more positive evaluations of the confederate. Study 2 found that when participants were given a chance to affirm an important aspect of the self prior to evaluating the confederate, these inflated evaluations of the confederate did not occur. Finally, in Study 3, participants who initially valued confronting but did not confront a sexist partner reduced the amount of importance they placed on confronting. These data reveal that there are important intrapersonal consequences of not confronting prejudice.
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Multiethnic Differences in Responses to Laboratory Pain Stimuli Among Children
Qian Lu, Lonnie Zeltzer & Jennie Tsao
Health Psychology, forthcoming
Objective: A growing body of literature suggests ethnic differences in experimental pain. However, these studies largely focus on adults and the comparison between Caucasians and African Americans. The primary aim of this study is to determine ethnic differences in laboratory-induced pain in a multiethnic child sample.
Method: Participants were 214 healthy children (mean age = 12.7, SD = 3.0 years). Ninety-eight Caucasian, 58 Hispanic, 34 African American, and 24 Asian children were exposed to four trials of pressure and radiant heat pain stimuli. Pain responses were assessed with self-report measures (i.e., pain intensity and unpleasantness) and behavioral observation (i.e., pain tolerance).
Results: Asians demonstrated more pain sensitivity than Caucasians, who evidenced more pain sensitivity than African Americans and Hispanics. The results hold even after controlling for age, sex, SES, and experimenter's ethnicity. Asians also showed higher anticipatory anxiety compared with other ethnic groups. Anticipatory anxiety accounted for some ethnic differences in pain between Asians, Hispanics, and African Americans.
Conclusions: By examining response to laboratory pain stimuli in children representing multiple ethnicities, an understudied sample, the study reveals unique findings compared to the existing literature. These findings have implications for clinicians who manage acute pain in children from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Future investigations should examine mechanisms that account for ethnic differences in pain during various developmental stages.
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Margaret Hicken et al.
Race and Social Problems, June 2013, Pages 100-112
Abstract:
Although racial/ethnic disparities in health have been well characterized in biomedical, public health, and social science research, the determinants of these disparities are still not well understood. Chronic psychosocial stress related specifically to the American experience of institutional and interpersonal racial discrimination may be an important determinant of these disparities, as a growing literature in separate scientific disciplines documents the adverse health effects of stress and the greater levels of stress experienced by non-white compared to white Americans. However, the empirical literature on the importance of stress for health and health disparities specifically due to racial discrimination, using population-representative data, is still small and mixed. In this paper, we explore the association between a novel measure of racially salient chronic stress - "racism-related vigilance" - and sleep difficulty. We found that, compared to the white adults in our sample, black (but not Hispanic) adults reported greater levels of vigilance. This vigilance was positively associated with sleep difficulty to similar degrees for all racial/ethnic groups in our sample (white, black, Hispanic). Black adults reported greater levels of sleep difficulty compared to white adults. This disparity was slightly attenuated after adjustment for education and income. However, this disparity was completely attenuated after adjustment for racism-related vigilance. We found similar patterns of results for Hispanic compared to white adults, however, the disparities in sleep difficulty were smaller and not statistically significant. Because of the importance of sleep quality to health, our results suggest that the anticipation of and perseveration about racial discrimination is an important determinant of racial disparities in health.
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Nao Hagiwara et al.
Social Science & Medicine, June 2013, Pages 123-131
Abstract:
Physician racial bias and patient perceived discrimination have each been found to influence perceptions of and feelings about racially discordant medical interactions. However, to our knowledge, no studies have examined how they may simultaneously influence the dynamics of these interactions. This study examined how (a) non-Black primary care physicians' explicit and implicit racial bias and (b) Black patients' perceived past discrimination affected physician-patient talk time ratio (i.e., the ratio of physician to patient talk time) during medical interactions and the relationship between this ratio and patients' subsequent adherence. We conducted a secondary analysis of self-report and video-recorded data from a prior study of clinical interactions between 112 low-income, Black patients and their 14 non-Black physicians at a primary care clinic in the Midwestern United States between June, 2006 and February, 2008. Overall, physicians talked more than patients; however, both physician bias and patient perceived past discrimination affected physician-patient talk time ratio. Non-Black physicians with higher levels of implicit, but not explicit, racial bias had larger physician-patient talk time ratios than did physicians with lower levels of implicit bias, indicating that physicians with more negative implicit racial attitudes talked more than physicians with less negative racial attitudes. Additionally, Black patients with higher levels of perceived discrimination had smaller physician-patient talk time ratios, indicating that patients with more negative racial attitudes talked more than patients with less negative racial attitudes. Finally, smaller physician-patient talk time ratios were associated with less patient subsequent adherence, indicating that patients who talked more during the racially discordant medical interactions were less likely to adhere subsequently. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed in the context of factors that affect the dynamics of racially discordant medical interactions.
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The Effect of Interracial Contact on Whites' Perceptions of Victimization Risk and Black Criminality
Daniel Mears et al.
Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, May 2013, Pages 272-299
Objectives: This article examines two questions. First, does interracial contact increase or decrease Whites' perceptions of Blacks' criminality? Second, does it affect Whites' perceived victimization risk, and, if so, is the effect mediated by the perceived criminality of Blacks as compared to the perceived criminality of different racial and ethnic groups?
Methods: Multivariate regression analyses of data from a national public opinion poll that included measures of perceived victimization risk and the criminality of Whites and Latinos.
Results: Interracial contact increases Whites' perceptions of the criminality of all racial and ethnic groups, not just Blacks. It also increases Whites' perceived risk of victimization, an effect that partially arises by increasing their perception of Whites and Latinos, and not just Blacks, as criminal.
Conclusions: Although the identified effects may be due to Whites' stereotypes about Blacks, they are equally consistent with the notion that interracial contact may educate Whites about crime. Unfortunately, the present study could not investigate this possibility. Future research ideally will address this limitation, use additional measures of contact, and assess other explanations for any identified effects.
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Whites' Perceptions of Discrimination against Blacks: The Influence of Common Identity
Jillian Banfield & John Dovidio
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research, consisting of three experiments, examined how different ways of representing the group identities of White and Black Americans affect Whites' recognition of discrimination against a Black person and their willingness to protest on behalf of that person. In Experiment 1 we predicted and found that inducing a common-group representation (as Americans), compared to a condition that emphasized separate racial-group identities, reduced Whites' recognition of subtle discrimination. This pattern was reversed under external threat. In Experiment 2, common identity reduced recognition of discrimination that was subtle, but not blatant. In addition, although a common-group identity did not facilitate Whites' willingness to protest blatant discrimination in Experiments 2 and 3, in Experiment 3 inducing a dual identity, which emphasizes both subgroup differences and a common-group representation, did. We discuss the implications of the results for when common- and dual-identity representations foster action on behalf of a minority group.
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Developmental Origins of the Other-Race Effect
Gizelle Anzures et al.
Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2013, Pages 173-178
Abstract:
The other-race effect (ORE) in face recognition refers to better recognition memory for faces of one's own race than faces of another race-a common phenomenon among individuals living in primarily mono-racial societies. In this article, we review findings suggesting that early visual and sociocultural experiences shape one's processing of familiar and unfamiliar race classes and give rise to the ORE within the 1st year of life. However, despite its early development, the ORE can be prevented, attenuated, and even reversed given experience with a novel race class. Social implications of the ORE are discussed in relation to development of race-based preferences for social partners and racial prejudices.
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Communication in multiplayer gaming: Examining player responses to gender cues
Jeffrey Kuznekoff & Lindsey Rose
New Media & Society, June 2013, Pages 541-556
Abstract:
The goal of this study is to determine how gamers' reactions to male voices differ from reactions to female voices. The authors conducted an observational study with an experimental design to play in and record multiplayer matches (N = 245) of a video game. The researchers played against 1,660 unique gamers and broadcasted pre-recorded audio clips of either a man or a woman speaking. Gamers' reactions were digitally recorded, capturing what was said and heard during the game. Independent coders were used to conduct a quantitative content analysis of game data. Findings indicate that, on average, the female voice received three times as many negative comments as the male voice or no voice. In addition, the female voice received more queries and more messages from other gamers than the male voice or no voice.
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Putting yourself in the skin of a black avatar reduces implicit racial bias
Tabitha Peck et al.
Consciousness and Cognition, September 2013, Pages 779-787
Abstract:
Although it has been shown that immersive virtual reality (IVR) can be used to induce illusions of ownership over a virtual body (VB), information on whether this changes implicit interpersonal attitudes is meager. Here we demonstrate that embodiment of light-skinned participants in a dark-skinned VB significantly reduced implicit racial bias against dark-skinned people, in contrast to embodiment in light-skinned, purple-skinned or with no VB. 60 females participated in this between-groups experiment, with a VB substituting their own, with full-body visuomotor synchrony, reflected also in a virtual mirror. A racial Implicit Association Test (IAT) was administered at least three days prior to the experiment, and immediately after the IVR exposure. The change from pre- to post-experience IAT scores suggests that the dark-skinned embodied condition decreased implicit racial bias more than the other conditions. Thus, embodiment may change negative interpersonal attitudes and thus represent a powerful tool for exploring such fundamental psychological and societal phenomena.
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Experiencing ownership over a dark-skinned body reduces implicit racial bias
Lara Maister et al.
Cognition, August 2013, Pages 170-178
Abstract:
Previous studies have investigated how existing social attitudes towards other races affect the way we ‘share' their bodily experiences, for example in empathy for pain, and sensorimotor mapping. Here, we ask whether it is possible to alter implicit racial attitudes by experimentally increasing self-other bodily overlap. Employing a bodily illusion known as the ‘Rubber Hand Illusion', we delivered multisensory stimulation to light-skinned Caucasian participants to induce the feeling that a dark-skinned hand belonged to them. We then measured whether this could change their implicit racial biases against people with dark skin. Across two experiments, the more intense the participants' illusion of ownership over the dark-skinned rubber hand, the more positive their implicit racial attitudes became. Importantly, it was not the pattern of multisensory stimulation per se, but rather, it was the change in the subjective experience of body ownership that altered implicit attitudes. These findings suggest that inducing an overlap between the bodies of self and other through illusory ownership is an effective way to change and reduce negative implicit attitudes towards outgroups.
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Sleep and prejudice: A resource recovery approach
Sonia Ghumman & Christopher Barnes
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Does sleepiness make one more likely to engage in stereotyping? Are people more likely to be prejudiced because of a poor night of sleep? Borrowing from ego depletion theory and research on self-control and prejudice, the present work investigates these questions. We suggest that sleep is a diminishable resource that fuels self-control and is, therefore, necessary for inhibiting prejudice. A series of 3 studies show that sleep did influence prejudice. Furthermore, we found that the relationship between sleep and prejudice was marginally moderated by negative implicit associations, such that this relationship primarily held true for individuals who have high negative implicit associations. These results highlight the critical role that sleep plays in suppressing prejudice.
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Status Boundary Enforcement and the Categorization of Black-White Biracials
Arnold Ho et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Individuals who qualify equally for membership in more than one racial group are not judged as belonging equally to both of their parent groups, but instead are seen as belonging more to their lower status parent group. Why? The present paper begins to establish the role of individual differences and social context in hypodescent, the process of assigning multiracials the status of their relatively disadvantaged parent group. Specifically, in two experiments, we found that individual differences in social dominance orientation - a preference for group-based hierarchy and inequality - interacts with perceptions of socioeconomic threat to influence the use of hypodescent in categorizing half-Black, half-White biracial targets. Importantly, this paper begins to establish hypodescent as a "hierarchy-enhancing" social categorization.
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Feeling Understood as a Key to Cultural Differences in Life Satisfaction
Shigehiro Oishi et al.
Journal of Research in Personality, October 2013, Pages 488-491
Abstract:
We investigated the role of felt understanding in life satisfaction, using an event sampling method. As predicted, Asian students in the U.S. were less satisfied with their lives than Caucasian counterparts. Also as predicted, Asian students reported lower levels of felt understanding than did Caucasian students. Finally, felt understanding in everyday life accounted for the mean difference in life satisfaction between Asians and Caucasians. However, the Asian-Caucasian difference in life satisfaction and felt understanding could be due to general positivity or negativity. We thus statistically controlled for extraversion and neuroticism. Controlling for extraversion and neuroticism, felt understanding still mediated the Asian-Caucasian difference in life satisfaction.
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Osei Appiah, Silvia Knobloch-Westerwick & Scott Alter
Journal of Communication, June 2013, Pages 517-534
Abstract:
This study examined whether the positive or negative valence of a news story, and the race of the character portrayed in the story, would influence Black or White readers' selection of a story. The study employed selective exposure methodology to unobtrusively measure story selections among Black and White readers as they browsed a news site. The results demonstrated Black newsreaders were more likely to select and read positive and negative stories featuring their racial ingroup, and more likely to select and read negative vis-à-vis positive stories about their outgroup. In contrast, Whites' story preference was not affected by story valence or character race. Theoretical assumptions from social identity, social comparison, and social cognitive theories are used to explain the findings.
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Adam Pearson et al.
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research examined whether mismatches in implicit racial attitudes and regulatory goals may contribute to well-documented cognitive depletion effects after interracial interactions. Consistent with a mismatch account of regulatory demands, both high and low implicitly-biased Whites showed evidence of cognitive depletion after interacting with a Black confederate, but as a function of oppositely-valenced emotion regulation prompts: Whereas high implicitly-biased Whites showed impaired subsequent performance on a Stroop task when instructed to suppress negative (but not positive) emotional expressions during an interracial interaction, low implicitly-biased Whites showed the opposite pattern. Additionally, attitude-regulatory goal mismatch was associated with more negative impressions of a Black confederate, independent of observers' impressions of the confederate. Implications of attitude-goal correspondence for intergroup interaction and the maintenance of intergroup bias are considered.
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Debra Gilin Oore, Annette Gagnon & David Bourgeois
Negotiation and Conflict Management Research, May 2013, Pages 94-113
Abstract:
This research investigated the unique role of racial in-group affect, or liking one's racial group, to foster or inhibit integration in negotiations with different race partners. We hypothesized that when the racial backgrounds of the negotiators are salient, threat inherent in negotiations activates in-group affect for some White negotiators (those more "glad to be White"), triggering divergent negotiation approaches with White versus Black counterparts. In support of our hypotheses, we found that when negotiating with a Black confederate, stronger in-group affect of White participants was a liability, relating to poorer joint outcomes and a "chilling and competing" negotiation approach. When negotiating with a White confederate, stronger in-group affect of White participants instead boosted the dyad's joint outcomes by fostering greater trust. The meaning and practical implications of strong in-group affect in negotiations with diverse counterparts are discussed.
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Laura Bogart et al.
American Journal of Public Health, June 2013, Pages 1074-1081
Objectives: We examined the contribution of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination to disparities in problem behaviors among preadolescent Black, Latino, and White youths.
Methods: We used cross-sectional data from Healthy Passages, a 3-community study of 5119 fifth graders and their parents from August 2004 through September 2006 in Birmingham, Alabama; Los Angeles County, California; and Houston, Texas. We used multivariate regressions to examine the relationships of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and race/ethnicity to problem behaviors. We used values from these regressions to calculate the percentage of disparities in problem behaviors associated with the discrimination effect.
Results: In multivariate models, perceived discrimination was associated with greater problem behaviors among Black and Latino youths. Compared with Whites, Blacks were significantly more likely to report problem behaviors, whereas Latinos were significantly less likely (a "reverse disparity"). When we set Blacks' and Latinos' discrimination experiences to zero, the adjusted disparity between Blacks and Whites was reduced by an estimated one third to two thirds; the reverse adjusted disparity favoring Latinos widened by about one fifth to one half.
Conclusions: Eliminating discrimination could considerably reduce mental health issues, including problem behaviors, among Black and Latino youths.
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Investigating prejudice toward men perceived to be Muslim: Cues of foreignness versus phenotype
Lisa Brown et al.
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Possible factors in prejudice toward Muslims and those perceived to be Muslims were investigated. We specifically investigated cues of foreignness that may communicate threat. Using a 2 (Complexion: dark vs. light) × 2 (Dress: Middle Eastern vs. Western) × 2 (Name: Allen vs. Mohammed) between-subjects design, we expected cues of foreignness (dress and name) to have a greater impact on perceptions of targets than phenotype (complexion). Participants reviewed portraits of young men varying in the manipulated characteristics and gave their impressions. Generally, complexion did not affect perceptions, but portraits in Middle Eastern dress were rated less positively. There was a name by dress interaction in which Allen in Western dress was rated least negatively. Implications for future research are discussed.
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Toward a Dose-Response Account of Media Priming
Florian Arendt
Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
We present a dose-response (DR) account of media priming. DR concepts describe the relationship between a dose and the elicited response and, thus, allow us to study dose-dependent media priming effects. We report empirical evidence from an experiment (N = 351) for the DR relationship between exposure to stereotypic newspaper content and readers' stereotypic social reality estimates. We investigated the change in the media priming effect size by utilizing nine experimentally manipulated dose-conditions (i.e., frequency of the media prime). The empirical data appeared in the form of a Gaussian distribution function: We were able to document (1) a threshold dose, which generally allows us to specify the acceptable daily intake of potentially harmful media content. Furthermore, (2) we found a decline in the effect size at very high dose levels. We argue that a DR account as a supplement to contemporary approaches can be beneficial for media priming research.