The effect of professor ethnicity and gender on student evaluations: Judged before met.

Ethnic minority academicians face a number of challenges in the “ivory tower.” One set of challenges arises from the racial stereotypes that others hold, and the current research investigates the stereotypes held by students before they even meet such professors. After providing college preparatory students with a CV of a professor (differing in their race—White, Black, or Asian; their gender—male or female; and their academic discipline—Science or Humanities), students evaluated the professor on measures of competence, legitimacy, and interpersonal skills. We found that students evaluated Black professors to be significantly less competent and legitimate than their White and Asian counterparts. Both Black and Asian professors were judged to have significantly less interpersonal skills than White professors. No gender main effects emerged. Professors in science were judged to be more competent and legitimate than professors in humanities. Very few interactions surfaced. We discuss our results in terms of previous stereotype research and the implications our results have for further compounding the challenges that Black professors face in academia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Role of affective meaningfulness and self-concept in the verbal learning styles of White and Black children.

White and Black 5th graders, representing 2 social class and 2 self-concept (Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale) levels, recalled nouns which they had prerated for likability in a multitrial free recall format. While self-concept failed to have any noticeable influence on the total sample, it interacted significantly with race. As predicted, the high self-concept White Ss recalled positively rated words more readily than negatively rated words, while their low self-concept peers showed no memory predilection. Although the low self-concept Black Ss also reflected no preference for their affective evaluations, the high self-concept Black Ss showed a greater propensity to recall their negatively rated words. Social class had a negligible effect on affective learning styles. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The White standard: Racial bias in leader categorization.

In 4 experiments, the authors investigated whether race is perceived to be part of the business leader prototype and, if so, whether it could explain differences in evaluations of White and non-White leaders. The first 2 studies revealed that "being White" is perceived to be an attribute of the business leader prototype, where participants assumed that business leaders more than nonleaders were White, and this inference occurred regardless of base rates about the organization's racial composition (Study 1), the racial composition of organizational roles, the business industry, and the types of racial minority groups in the organization (Study 2). The final 2 studies revealed that a leader categorization explanation could best account for differences in White and non-White leader evaluations, where White targets were evaluated as more effective leaders (Study 3) and as having more leadership potential (Study 4), but only when the leader had recently been given credit for organizational success, consistent with the prediction that leader prototypes are more likely to be used when they confirm and reinforce individualized information about a leader's performance. The results demonstrate a connection between leader race and leadership categorization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evidence for hypodescent and racial hierarchy in the categorization and perception of biracial individuals.

Individuals who qualify equally for membership in two racial groups provide a rare window into social categorization and perception. In 5 experiments, we tested the extent to which a rule of hypodescent, whereby biracial individuals are assigned the status of their socially subordinate parent group, would govern perceptions of Asian–White and Black–White targets. In Experiment 1, in spite of posing explicit questions concerning Asian–White and Black–White targets, hypodescent was observed in both cases and more strongly in Black–White social categorization. Experiments 2A and 2B used a speeded response task and again revealed evidence of hypodescent in both cases, as well as a stronger effect in the Black–White target condition. In Experiments 3A and 3B, social perception was studied with a face-morphing task. Participants required a face to be lower in proportion minority to be perceived as minority than in proportion White to be perceived as White. Again, the threshold for being perceived as White was higher for Black–White than for Asian–White targets. An independent categorization task in Experiment 3B further confirmed the rule of hypodescent and variation in it that reflected the current racial hierarchy in the United States. These results documenting biases in the social categorization and perception of biracials have implications for resistance to change in the American racial hierarchy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Explaining discrepancies in arrest rates between Black and White male juveniles.

The authors investigated discrepancies in arrest rates between Black and White male juveniles by examining the role of early risk factors for arrest. Two hypotheses were evaluated: (a) Disproportionate minority arrest is due to increased exposure to early risk factors, and (b) a differential sensitivity to early risk factors contributes to disproportionate minority arrest. The study included 481 Black and White boys who were followed from childhood to early adulthood. A higher incidence of early risk factors accounted for racial differences related to any juvenile arrest, as well as differences in violence- and theft-related arrests. However, increased exposure to early risk factors did not explain race differences in drug-related arrests. Minimal support was found for the hypothesis that a differential sensitivity to risk factors accounts for disproportionate rate of minority male arrests. In sum, most racial discrepancies in juvenile male arrests were accounted for by an increased exposure to childhood risk factors. Specifically, Black boys were more likely to display early conduct problems and low academic achievement and experience poor parent–child communication, peer delinquency, and neighborhood problems, which increased their risk for juvenile arrest. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A meta-analysis of ratee race effects in performance ratings.

Conducted a meta-analysis of how the race of the ratee affects performance ratings by examining 74 studies with a total sample of 17,159 ratees for White raters and 14 studies with 2,428 ratees for Black raters. The 5 moderators examined were the study setting, rater training, type of rating, rating purpose, and the racial composition of the work group. Results show that the corrected mean correlations between ratee race and ratings for White and Black raters were .183 and –.220, with 95% confidence intervals that excluded zero for both rater groups. Substantial moderating effects were found for study setting and for the saliency of Blacks in the sample. Race effects were more likely in field settings when Blacks composed a small percentage of the work force. Both Black and White raters gave significantly higher ratings to members of their own race. It is suggested that future research should focus on understanding the process underlying race effects. References for the studies included are appended. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Racial and attitudinal factors affecting the perceptions of counselors by Black adolescents.

Presented to 247 Black male and female high school students racial and attitudinal information about a hypothetical male or female counselor and asked them to express their perceptions of the counselor. Attitudinal information about a counselor had a stronger effect than racial information on Ss' perception of the counselor: Counselors portrayed as attitudinally similar were rated significantly higher in attractiveness, trustworthiness, expertness, and social attraction than those portrayed as attitudinally dissimilar. Racial information also influenced perceived attractiveness: White counselors were rated higher than Black ones in attractiveness, although there was no difference in ratings of trustworthiness or expertise. White female counselors were perceived as more expert than their Black female counterparts, whereas the ratings of male counselors were not influenced by the racial variable. Implications for counselor–client relationships and the development of mental health services for minority populations are discussed. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of rater race on conclusions regarding differential prediction in cognitive ability tests.

The possibility of predictive bias by race in employment tests is commonly examined by across-group comparisons of the slopes and intercepts of regression lines using test scores to predict performance measures. This research assumed that the criteria, primarily supervisory ratings, were unbiased. However, a concern is that the apparent lack of differential prediction in cognitive ability tests may be an artifact of the predominant use of performance ratings provided by supervisors who are members of the majority group; a criterion that is potentially biased against members of the minority group. We posited that ratings by a supervisor of the same race as the employee being rated would be less open to claims of bias. We compared ability-performance relationships in samples of Black and White employees that allowed for between-subjects and within-subjects comparisons under 2 conditions: when all employees were rated by a White supervisor and when each employee was rated by a supervisor of the same race. Neither analysis found evidence of predictive bias against Black employees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An exploratory examination of the associations among racial and ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms in a college student population.

In this study, we examined the association among perceptions of racial and/or ethnic discrimination, racial climate, and trauma-related symptoms among 289 racially diverse college undergraduates. Study measures included the Perceived Stress Scale, the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist—Civilian Version, and the Racial Climate Scale. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) indicated that Asian and Black students reported more frequent experiences of discrimination than did White students. Additionally, the MANOVA indicated that Black students perceived the campus racial climate as being more negative than did White and Asian students. A hierarchical regression analysis showed that when controlling for generic life stress, perceptions of discrimination contributed an additional 10% of variance in trauma-related symptoms for Black students, and racial climate contributed an additional 7% of variance in trauma symptoms for Asian students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

White juror bias: An investigation of prejudice against Black defendants in the American courtroom.

Racial prejudice in the courtroom is examined through a historical sketch of racism in the legal system, a review of psychological research on White juror bias, and a study investigating White mock jurors' judgments of a fictional trial summary. The central hypothesis is that salient racial issues at trial activate the normative racial attitudes held by White jurors. In previous eras, these racial norms encouraged overtly anti-Black prejudice. But in modern America, many Whites embrace an egalitarian value system and try to behave in an appropriately nonprejudiced manner when race is salient. Therefore, contrary to the intuition of many scholars and researchers, contemporary White jurors are more likely to demonstrate racial bias against a Black defendant in interracial trials without blatantly racial issues. Empirical data suggest that this pattern of bias is not limited to one type of crime or one type of racial issue. Practical implications and future research directions are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Examining a multidimensional framework of racial identity across different biracial groups.

The term multiracial is complex. Recent research has adopted a multidimensional view initially proposed by Rockquemore and colleagues (2002, 2009) for examining racial identity among Black/White biracial people. This approach has acknowledged the social construction of race and broadened the range of racial identity options beyond the two “traditional” options of being “Black” or “biracial.” This study was designed to further assess this framework by examining a more diverse multiracial sample from Canada and the U.S. (N = 122). Both the Black/White biracials (n = 38) and Asian/White biracials (n = 40) showed great variability in their selection of Rockquemore's multiracial identity categories, but the pattern of responses differed across the two groups. In addition to revealing different patterns of identity selection between Asian/White and Black/White biracial persons, findings demonstrated the importance of identity validation by others and its relation to conceptions of the self. Having a multiracial identity that is validated by others (as opposed to invalidated or contextually dependent identities) was associated with higher levels of identity integration and self-concept clarity. Theoretical implications for extending a multidimensional model to other biracial groups are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Black students' racial identity on perceptions of White counselors varying in cultural sensitivity.

Hypothesized that Black students' racial identity would affect their perceptions of White counselors' interview behaviors. Pretesting on a developmental racial identity instrument developed by T. A. Parham and J. E. Helms (see record 1981-21936-001) placed 54 Black undergraduates at either the encounter stage, characterized by a strong concern with Black identity, or the internalization stage, characterized by a variety of concerns, not exclusively Black. Ss then viewed videotapes of 1 of 2 White female counselors who used either culture-sensitive or culture-blind behaviors in working with a Black male client. Culture-sensitive behaviors acknowledged and showed interest in the role of culture or race in the client's problem. Culture-blind behaviors minimized the importance of culture or race and shifted the focus to other factors. Results indicate that Ss rated culture-sensitive counselors as more culturally competent than culture-blind counselors. In addition, cultural sensitivity interacted with racial identity, with Ss at the encounter stage rating culture-sensitive counselors the most expert and the most culturally competent. (13 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Between the Cup of Principle and the Lip of Practice: Ethnic Minorities and American Psychology, 1966-1980.

By 1980, the previously held dichotomy of Black and White racial identity in America had yielded to a mosaic of red, yellow, brown, black, and white. During the 1960s and 1970s, identity, and thus psychological knowledge, were articulated and differentiated in terms of gender, sexual orientation, and class in unprecedented ways. In this article, the author contextualizes efforts to make mainstream American psychology more receptive to ethnic minorities between 1966 and 1980. Advocacy and activism by ethnic minority psychologists forced American mainstream psychology to yield a place at the table to non-White, non-European individuals. He emphasizes the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority graduate students and faculty, and concludes that many individual psychologists were important in forcing changes in these areas. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of student race and physical attractiveness on teachers' judgments of transgressions.

60 student teachers (STs) and 137 practicing teachers (PTs) rated the severity of classroom misbehaviors ascribed to either a Black or White attractive or unattractive child. Following student teaching, STs' ratings of Black children's transgressions significantly increased in severity, while ratings of White children's transgressions remained the same. PTs were affected by student attractiveness but not by race, with transgressions by attractive children of both races being rated more severely than transgressions by unattractive children. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Contemporary approaches to pharmacotherapy in Tourette''s syndrome and obsessive-compulsive disorder

Considerable research on minority health has examined whether members of a minority group experience more rapid health declines than the White majority when both groups reach later life. Researchers have sought to determine if being both old and a member of a minority creates a double disadvantage to health. The primary purpose of this research is to test the double jeopardy to health hypothesis among Black and White Americans using data from a 15-year panel study of adults: National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey I: Epidemiological Follow-up Study (NHEFS). African Americans have poorer health at all three times on a variety of health status measures, but no evidence for double jeopardy was uncovered. There were important racial differences for change in health status but Black Americans of all ages -- including Black older adults -- suffered from growing disability and more negative ratings of health. Black adults are more likely to develop serious illness, and their ratings of health decline more rapidly than is the case for White respondents. While there is little support for the double jeopardy hypothesis as originally stated, there is overwhelming evidence to show that the health of Black Americans of all ages declines at a faster rate. The formulation of the double jeopardy hypothesis is critiqued on several points: ontogenetic fallacy, attribution of discrimination, and selective mortality.     

Evaluative race–class stereotypes by race and perceived class of subjects.

80 Black and 74 White college students assigned traits, from a list of 80, to the Black lower class, Black middle class, White lower class, and White middle class. Each S rated the 5 or fewer traits that he or she had chosen as being most typical of the respective race–class groups from –5 (unfavorable) to +5 (favorable) for the given groups. Ss also assigned themselves to 1 of 4 classes: lower class, working class, middle class, or upper class. On the basis of these judgments, the Ss within each racial group were classified as perceiving themselves to be above or below the median of their own race's distribution. White Ss assigned more favorable characteristics to the middle than to the lower class and did not rate Blacks lower than Whites. Black Ss made a similar, but smaller, social class distinction and, in addition, generally perceived Blacks more favorably than Whites. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Black-white differences in leader behavior related to subordinates' reactions.

Investigated differences in 4 managerial leadership measures (managerial support, goal emphasis, work facilitation, and interaction facilitation) among 72 Black, 36 White, and 15 Chicano subordinates of 16 Black and 17 White supervisors in 3 industrial plants. The 10 supervisory leadership questions used are part of a larger instrument, the Survey of Organizations. Findings were analyzed to determine whether or not the subordinates' reactions to their supervisors on each managerial leadership measure varied with (a) the race of the supervisor, (b) the race of supervisor and subordinates, and (c) the majority or minority numerical status of subordinates in work groups with supervisor of the same or different race. Results indicate that the behavior of supervisors toward their subordinates is a complex function of (a) the supervisor's own race and role in combination with (b) the race of subordinates and (c) the majority or minority positions of racial groups within the group supervised. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Having an Open Mind: The Impact of Openness to Experience on Interracial Attitudes and Impression Formation.

This article considers how Openness to Experience may mitigate the negative stereotyping of Black people by White perceivers. As expected, White individuals who scored relatively high on Openness to Experience exhibited less prejudice according to self-report measures of explicit racial attitudes. Further, White participants who rated themselves higher on Openness to Experience formed more favorable impressions of a fictitious Black individual. Finally, after observing informal interviews of White and Black targets, White participants who were more open formed more positive impressions of Black interviewees, particularly on dimensions that correspond to negative racial stereotypes. The effect of Openness to Experience was relatively stronger for judgments of Black interviewees than for judgments of White interviewees. Taken together these findings suggest that explicit racial attitudes and impression formation may depend on the individual characteristics of the perceiver, particularly whether she or he is predisposed to consider stereotype-disconfirming information. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perspective taking combats automatic expressions of racial bias.

Five experiments investigated the hypothesis that perspective taking—actively contemplating others' psychological experiences—attenuates automatic expressions of racial bias. Across the first 3 experiments, participants who adopted the perspective of a Black target in an initial context subsequently exhibited more positive automatic interracial evaluations, with changes in automatic evaluations mediating the effect of perspective taking on more deliberate interracial evaluations. Furthermore, unlike other bias-reduction strategies, the interracial positivity resulting from perspective taking was accompanied by increased salience of racial inequalities (Experiment 3). Perspective taking also produced stronger approach-oriented action tendencies toward Blacks (but not Whites; Experiment 4). A final experiment revealed that face-to-face interactions with perspective takers were rated more positively by Black interaction partners than were interactions with nonperspective takers—a relationship that was mediated by perspective takers' increased approach-oriented nonverbal behaviors (as rated by objective, third-party observers). These findings indicate that perspective taking can combat automatic expressions of racial biases without simultaneously decreasing sensitivity to ongoing racial disparities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of race on interview ratings in a situational panel interview.

This study investigated the effects of interviewer race, candidate race, and racial composition of interview panels on interview ratings. Data were collected on 153 police officers applying for promotion. Results confirmed a same-race rating effect (i.e., candidates racially similar to interviewers received higher ratings) for Black and White interviewers on racially balanced panels. A majority-race rating effect (i.e., candidates racially similar to the majority race of panel interviewers received higher ratings) existed for Black and White interviewers on primarily White panels. Rating patterns of Black and White interviewers on primarily Black panels also suggested a majority-race rating effect. Racial composition of selection interview panels in combination with interviewer and candidate race were proposed as variables affecting candidates' ratings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)