Rush to judgment
Mark Hsueh, Kumar Yogeeswaran & Sanna Malinen
Human Communication Research, forthcoming
Abstract:
Increased use of online communication in everyday life presents a growing need to understand how people are influenced by others in such settings. In this study, online comments established social norms that directly influenced readers' expressions of prejudice both consciously and unconsciously. Participants read an online article and were then exposed to antiprejudiced or prejudiced comments allegedly posted by other users. Results revealed that exposure to prejudiced (relative to antiprejudiced) comments influenced respondents to post more prejudiced comments themselves. In addition, these effects generalized to participants' unconscious and conscious attitudes toward the target group once offline. These findings suggest that simple exposure to social information can impact our attitudes and behavior, suggesting potential avenues for social change in online environments.
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A Study of a Market Anomaly: “White Men Can’t Jump,” But Would You Bet On It?
Deniz Igan, Marcelo Pinheiro & John Smith
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, May 2015, Pages 13–25
Abstract:
We identify a largely efficient market in which there is a relationship between race and market outcomes. Examining data on NBA games, we find that teams with more black players tend to face larger point spreads and that these teams perform worse against the spread. These biased outcomes are significantly large and persistent so that we are able to identify profit opportunities. We also find evidence that the biased spread is set by the bookmakers rather than being moved as a result of excessive betting on the more black team. We examine several alternate explanations, and the racial composition measures remain significant in these specifications.
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Awareness of Intergroup Help Can Rehumanize the Out-Group
Tamar Saguy et al.
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Dehumanizing the enemy is one of the most destructive elements of intergroup conflict. Past research demonstrated that awareness of harm that the in-group imposed on a specific out-group can increase out-group dehumanization as means of justifying the harm. In this research, we examined whether the opposite process would occur when people become aware of help given to an adversary. We reasoned that the need to justify a good deed toward a persistent enemy can result in more human-like out-group attributions. In two experiments, Israeli-Jews read about their group either helping Palestinians or not. In Study 1, awareness of help provided by the in-group to the out-group resulted in greater out-group humanization. In Study 2, we further established that when a third party helped the out-group, the rehumanization effect was not obtained, suggesting that the phenomenon is of specific intergroup nature. Theoretical and applied implications for conflict resolution are discussed.
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Keon West, Rhiannon Turner & Liat Levita
Journal of Applied Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
This experiment (N = 49) is the first to show that imagined contact can buffer anticipatory physiological responses to future interactions, and improve the quality of these interactions. Participants imagined a positive interaction with a person with schizophrenia, or in a control condition, a person who did not have schizophrenia. They then interacted with a confederate whom they believed had schizophrenia. Participants in the imagined contact condition reported more positive attitudes and less avoidance of people with schizophrenia, displayed smaller anticipatory physiological responses, specifically smaller changes in interbeat interval and skin conductance responses, and had a more positive interaction according to the confederate. These findings support applying imagined contact to improve interactions with people with severe mental illnesses.
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Francesca Prati et al.
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
One way to promote equality is to encourage people to generate counterstereotypic role models. In two experiments, we demonstrate that such interventions have much broader benefits than previously thought — reducing a reliance on heuristic thinking and decreasing tendencies to dehumanize outgroups. In Experiment 1, participants who thought about a gender counterstereotype (e.g., a female mechanic) demonstrated a generalized decrease in dehumanization towards a range of unrelated target groups (including asylum seekers and the homeless). In Experiment 2 we replicated these findings using alternative targets and measures of dehumanization. Furthermore, we found the effect was mediated by a reduced reliance on heuristic thinking. The findings suggest educational initiatives that aim to challenge social stereotypes may not only have societal benefits (generalized tolerance), but also tangible benefits for individuals (enhanced cognitive flexibility).
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Affect and Understanding During Everyday Cross-Race Experiences
Robyn Mallett, Sharon Akimoto & Shigehiro Oishi
Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research uses an event sampling method to test whether, compared to same-race interactions, everyday cross-race contact is better characterized by the presence of negative affect or the absence of positive affect. Everyday intergroup interactions have some positive and negative aspects, so the present research independently assesses positive affect and negative affect along with felt understanding and misunderstanding. Across 3 studies (Study 1, n = 107; Study 2, n = 112; Study 3, n = 146), we find that European, Asian, and African Americans report that everyday cross-race interactions generate less positive affect and felt understanding than same-race interactions. Yet cross-race interactions entail no more negative affect than same-race interactions. This supports the idea that positive emotions are mostly reserved for and experienced with the ingroup, rather than the idea that people feel animosity toward the outgroup. Given that nearly half of racial-minority group member’s everyday interactions are cross-race, their daily encounters are typically less positive than those of racial-majority group members. Feeling less well understood as a result of cross-race contact may increase the likelihood that racial-minority group members question whether they belong on a college campus.
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Jill Coleman, Amy Brunell & Ingrid Haugen
Current Psychology, March 2015, Pages 177-189
Abstract:
The present study examined how gender and disability stereotypes interact to influence social judgments. We predicted that people would judge a woman with physical disability more negatively than a woman with intellectual disability, but that there would be a less pronounced difference for judgments of men with physical and intellectual disability. Participants (N = 173) read short descriptions of a male or female character who was physically or intellectually disabled. They evaluated the character’s warmth and competence and reported how much social distance they wanted from the character. Contrary to our expectations, participants reported significantly less desire for social distance from physically disabled women than intellectually disabled women. As predicted, evaluations of men were not affected by the type of disability the target character possessed.
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Using Celebrity News Stories to Effectively Reduce Racial/Ethnic Prejudice
Srividya Ramasubramanian
Journal of Social Issues, March 2015, Pages 123–138
Abstract:
This article argues that exposure to admirable media celebrities from racial/ethnic outgroups is an effective, proactive, and viable strategy for prejudice reduction and intergroup harmony. It uses mediated contact and exemplification theories to demonstrate that reading news stories about likable outgroup media personalities who serve as counter-stereotypic exemplars can subtly modify racial attitudes, which are malleable and context-sensitive. Specifically, results from a between-participants experiment (N = 88) show that exposure to news stories about counter-stereotypic African American media personalities as compared to stereotypical ones reduces stereotypical perceptions and symbolic racist beliefs of White Americans about African Americans. Furthermore, these favorable attitudes translate into an increased willingness to support affirmative action policies.
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Effects of Right-Wing Populist Political Advertising on Implicit and Explicit Stereotypes
Florian Arendt, Franziska Marquart & Jörg Matthes
Journal of Media Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
We investigated the effects of antiforeigner political advertisements on implicit and explicit stereotypes. While stereotypical associations may become automatically activated (implicit stereotypes), individuals can reject these thoughts and decide not to use them for an overtly expressed judgment (explicit stereotypes). We hypothesized that even if citizens negated stereotypical content, advertisements might still affect implicit stereotypes. This hypothesis was tested using an experiment where participants (N = 186) were exposed to zero, two, four, or six stereotypical advertisements. The results showed that stereotypical advertisements did not influence explicit stereotypes but did influence implicit stereotypes, even in critical recipients who negated the stereotypical content.
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Yvette van Osch et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, April 2015, Pages 559-574
Abstract:
We tested whether the perceived physical attractiveness of a group is greater than the average attractiveness of its members. In nine studies, we find evidence for the so-called group attractiveness effect (GA-effect), using female, male, and mixed-gender groups, indicating that group impressions of physical attractiveness are more positive than the average ratings of the group members. A meta-analysis on 33 comparisons reveals that the effect is medium to large (Cohen’s d = 0.60) and moderated by group size. We explored two explanations for the GA-effect: (a) selective attention to attractive group members, and (b) the Gestalt principle of similarity. The results of our studies are in favor of the selective attention account: People selectively attend to the most attractive members of a group and their attractiveness has a greater influence on the evaluation of the group.
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Riva Tukachinsky, Dana Mastro & Moran Yarchi
Journal of Social Issues, March 2015, Pages 17–38
Abstract:
The current study content analyzes the 345 most viewed U.S. television shows within 12 separate television seasons spanning the years 1987 to 2009. Using multilevel modeling, the results from this comprehensive content analysis then are used to predict national-level racial/ethnic perceptions (between the years 1988 and 2008) with data from the American National Election Studies (ANES). Content analysis results reveal severe underrepresentation of Latinos, Asian Americans, and Native Americans, and a tendency to depict ethnic minorities stereotypically (e.g., overrepresentation of hyper-sexualized Latino characters). Multilevel-modeling analysis indicates that both the quantity and quality of ethnic media representations contributes to Whites’ racial attitudes.
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Mark Seery & Wendy Quinton
Social Psychological and Personality Science, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although Asians in the United States are targets of racial prejudice and discrimination, cultural forces may hinder their acknowledging that such bias has occurred. High personal self-esteem (SE) may facilitate acknowledging discrimination — which is costly yet necessary to remedy unfair treatment — but the importance of personal SE for Asians has been questioned. This study investigated a novel question: Does high personal SE function as a psychological resource for Asians’ attributions to racial discrimination? Participants received negative performance feedback containing one of three levels of cues to a White evaluator’s prejudice (feedback only, less-clear cues, or more-clear cues). Participants with lower SE reported elevated attributions to discrimination only when cues were more clear, whereas participants with higher SE reported elevated attributions when any cues to prejudice were present. Results suggest that high personal SE serves as a psychological resource for Asian targets of prejudice, lowering the threshold for acknowledging discriminatory treatment.
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Semantic Information Influences Race Categorization From Faces
Konstantin Tskhay & Nicholas Rule
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
It is well established that low-level visual features affect person categorization in a bottom-up fashion. Few studies have examined top-down influences, however, and have largely focused on how information recalled from memory or from motivation influences categorization. Here, we investigated how race categorizations are affected by the context in which targets are perceived by manipulating semantic information associated with the faces being categorized. We found that presenting faces that systematically varied in racial ambiguity with race-congruent (vs. incongruent) semantic labels shifted the threshold at which perceivers distinguished between racial groups. The semantic information offered by the labels therefore appeared to influence the categorization of race. These findings suggest that semantic information creates a context for the interpretation of perceptual cues during social categorization, highlighting an active role of top-down information in race perception.
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Bas van Doorn
Politics & Policy, February 2015, Pages 142–162
Abstract:
This article analyzes racial and ethnic patterns in media coverage of poverty in the United States, with a particular focus on depictions of African Americans and Hispanics. A content analysis of photos accompanying poverty-related stories published in Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News & World Report from 1992 to 2010 shows that while Hispanics are underrepresented in media portrayals of the poor, African Americans are overrepresented, especially alongside stories on welfare, in times of economic growth and low unemployment, and in coverage unsympathetic to the poor more generally. I conclude that media coverage of poverty is unrepresentative in a manner consistent with stereotypes concerning African Americans and Hispanics, likely contributing to the endurance of such stereotypes and explaining the fact that welfare is as unpopular after welfare reform as it was prior to reform.
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Toni Schmader, Katharina Block & Brian Lickel
Journal of Social Issues, March 2015, Pages 54–72
Abstract:
Disadvantaged ethnic groups are often portrayed stereotypically in film, but little is known about how such portrayals affect members of those groups. Two experiments examined the affective and attitudinal reactions of Mexican and European Americans to stereotypic film clips of Latinos. Results of Study 1 revealed that stereotypic films cue negative affect among Mexican Americans, regardless of the realism of the portrayals. In Study 2, both Mexican and European Americans felt more self-conscious when another ingroup member openly laughed at negative Latino stereotypes in a comedy. Across both studies, the importance of ethnic identity exacerbated negative reactions to stereotypic clips and predicted somewhat more negative implicit group attitudes among Mexican Americans. In contrast, group pride mitigated affective costs and predicted greater enjoyment of stereotypical film clips among European Americans. The implications for the role of mass media in creating social identity threat for disadvantaged ethnic groups are discussed.